The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Good day all, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I'm a long time fan of watches and I also work in the aviation industry, as such I've been wanting a Navitimer for quite a long time. The Navi has a lot of variants, but in my years of wanting the Navi and searching them and google, I kind of narrowed down what I wanted mine to look like:

- Breitling winged B logo
- Breitling 13/Valjoux 7750 (6 9 12 subdial layout), the subdials being a different color than the dial
- Size doesn't matter much, but I would prefer it not to exceed 43mm in diameter and less than 15mm in thickness, lug to lug around 48mm

I think that narrows it down further to the Navitimer Fighters, Old Navitimer I and Old Navitimer II. Anyway, my questions are:

- Are there other Navitimers that I should know about that fits my description?
- What are the differences between the Old Navi I and the Old Navi II?
- If I'm not mistaken the Navi Fighters is finished in all brushed steel and has a Mineral crystal, how will the crystal hold up in every day use?
- Lastly, with the choices I think I have, it's pretty much set that I would have to buy a used piece, well not that it matters much to me. Any other tips or bits of info I should know about when looking for these used Navitimers?

Thanks for bearing with me, and I'm looking forward to having my first Navitimer. Cheers!

Hi and welcome to the forum

I've had a fair few Navitimers in my years of following Breitling.

I'm sure someone will correct me but here goes :
The Old Navi 1 had printed lumed indices (baton or arabic).
Some of them had simple generic shaped main hands.
The 7750 was 17jewel with plain bridges and a simple signed rotor.
The date font was basic ETA style.
The bracelet is similar to the 5 piece Pilot bracelet.

The Old Navi 2 had applied batons or thicker printed arabics.
Had sword shaped hands and the B and Anchor on the large chrono hand.
The cal. 13 was 25j chronometer movt, which was elabore decorated with a nicer rotor, had distinctive Breitling only date font
The bracelet was what we still have now, the 7 piece Navitimer bracelet.
The convex sapphire crystal had double anti reflective coating, but the chance of finding an intact original coated crystal now is slim.

The Fighters edition is significantly different to the normal Navitimers not just by the brushed finish and caseback but the bezel is taller to accommodate the thicker domed mineral crystal which also had double AR treatment.
Years ago, this cost me an extra 700 gbp to have replaced as part of a service. The mineral crystal in theory is more susceptible than sapphire but to be honest, I have scratched and chipped a few sapphires in my time!

One of the reasons what cause me to choose between the models is also whether I want the brushed finish or polished, and also whether you intend to use straps or the Navitimer bracelet? I found that the all polished bracelet was too blingy for me, so I had to use straps with the polished case. Whereas the Fighters looks fine with either option.

Another variation worth considering is the 50th Anniversary Navitimer. It's the 3,6,9 layout but I think it's a worthy nod back to some of the vintage Navitimers that were used by aviators back in the day. I had several of these and now regret flipping them. OK, they don't have the wings on the dial but rather the original twin plane logo, which has been my avatar for years.

When buying used, it'd be great to be able to find a complete set and the watch being in excellent condition, but I've found that these tend to be rarely seen.
My personal preference is to have a watch that is OEM with its parts (ie no aftermarket crystal) that is in excellent condition and not polished to death. Rather than a tatty looking watch with full box and papers... After all, you'll be looking at your watch every day, not the paperwork. It'll cost more to rectify a tatty watch than what you'll get from having the box and papers.

Finally, if you can't find a good used model then perhaps save a little more and opt for a new Chronograph 1 from a grey dealer? I know the wings aren't there but I like it, especially the blue dial.


Hope that helps!

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Oyster Date '78, Blackbird chrono DLC '10, Blackbird chrono' 02, Navitimer Fighters '02, Aerospace Evo , Seamaster Chrono Diver 300' 02, Carrera cbm2110

Thank you for the informative reply! Going by the differences you mentioned between the Old Navi I and the Old Navi II, I think I'm inclined to go with the latter, admittedly I didn't notice those differences when I was searching these models. The Old Navi II to me just looks more refined with the applied hour markers, although I'm not a fan of the all polished case and bracelet.

I would have wanted the Navi Fighters but I think it's a bit thicker and I'm worried about the crystal being Mineral, which I think isn't ideal if I'm going to use it every day. So what I want is a black dial with the stick hour markers, am I correct in saying that reference A13322 is the one I'm looking for? When I search the other references listed on this page, other ones with Arabic markers and/or gold watches come up.

I agree with you on the Navi 2, the level of refinement on that model stuck with all the future navitimer designs and is what we are mostly happy with!

Yes that model number is correct, for the steel case, cal 13 with batons. It applies to other dial colours and a quick search online brings up this blue dial which I think looks great on a bracelet, if you can live with the high polish scratch magnet

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Oyster Date '78, Blackbird chrono DLC '10, Blackbird chrono' 02, Navitimer Fighters '02, Aerospace Evo , Seamaster Chrono Diver 300' 02, Carrera cbm2110

I would recommend the Navitimer Heritage like the one I have if you can get it. This one is from 2017. It was also made in blue.

42 mm and I love it

@RP-C0914 I could have written your post myself! That is exactly how my hunt started... Ended up with these...might help ya.

The 41.5mm Cosmonaute (Lemania) A12322 obviously stands on its own with that movement and being manually wound.

The 41.5mm Old Navitimer II A13022 with its 6,9,12 (Cal 13) was my first but then I realized the 3,6,9 sub dials were more pleasing to my eye so I got a 41.8mm Navitimer 2003 A23322 (Cal23). Don't worry about the bling...just buy a strap! I bought 2 of mine with bracelet and then sold on eBay. I'm not a bracelet guy for Navitimers.

The last one is the AB012112 which is my only 43mm and the first B01 to be released with a display back and White Gold Wings. A more common version would be the AB0120 43mm but solid case back Gold Wings. I will probably get on of these b/c I love the Yellow Gold Wings...last pic not mine.

Finally this link from Breitling Source has what you need! https://www.breitlingsource.com/models/navitimer.html

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Mickey® 

I was going to add the Navitimer Heritage but Hunterfate beat me to it.

I've been going in circles the last several years myself trying to find the Navitimer for me. I like the lumed arabic dials (more instrument like) and have owned the Fighters version, the A23322 with the 3, 6, 9 sub dial layout, and an 806 vintage piece. I have not owned any of the new B01 versions (no arabics).

Good luck with your decision!

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Chrono Jetstream
Montbrilliant 1903
Aerospace E79362

Lovely pieces you have there, thanks for sharing! As of now it's a toss up between the A13330 Navi Fighters and the A13322 Old Navi II.



Hey thanks for the reply. As of now it's a toss up between the A13330 Navitimer Fighters and the A13322 Old Navitimer II. I prefer the all brushed look of the Fighters but it's 1mm thicker. How did the Mineral glass on yours hold up when you owned it?

I forgot to mention that there is a big chance that this purchase would not be in person, so I'm only using photos on the web for reference, but yeah so far I prefer the brushed look. It would have been awesome to find photos of comparison between the Fighters and the Old Navitimer II, but I can't find any.

The Navitimer Heritage indeed looks nice but I don't know, I guess I prefer the color of the subdials to be in white, looks more legible to me, and I think it's also more expensive?

I don't know about price but IMHO same color subdials are helping legibility. When main hands are over white subdials they tend to disappear. Just my 2c

I also like brushed look but I went for same color subdials.

Check out reference AB012012. It was the last model to have the gold wings and it has the Breitling B01 in house movement.