The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Breitling crowns its 125 years of passion for chronographs with the launch of its own high-performance movement.
Breitling is marking an important date in its history by unveiling Caliber B, its first chronograph “motor” designed and built entirely in-house. It is a logical evolution for a brand that has played a major role in developing the wrist chronograph, and is counted among the leading makers of this complication. It is a perfectly consistent choice for one of the last independent Swiss watchmakers, which is thereby ensuring its freedom to maneuver and loyalty to its own criteria for excellence.



Through 125 years and five generations, Breitling has tied its name closely to the development of aviation, sports, technology, sciences and industry – all of these being areas that require reliable and accurate measuring instruments. With the B01, the company is more than ever confirming its calling to accomplish challenging feats, and beginning a new chapter in a history already replete with great moments in the air, on land and beneath the seas.

So do I take it now that Breitling are making their own movements completely in house now

_________________

ps just noticed who released this e mail without spell checking it
maneuver

_________________

I think its a dialect thing. "maneuver" is how it is in the US.

_________________
-RJ

Here is the link to the announcement:

http://www.breitling.com/calibreB01/index_en.html

ok cool we spell it different in the uk

tomato and tomatto I think

_________________

hopefully this will resolve the "jumping minute hand flaw" that some of chronographs have!

Is that a 'flaw'?

I always thought it was intentional (and quite like the way it jjjjjjjjjjj-umps over to the next minute).

As long as Breitling doesn't bad mouth the older ETA/Valjoux movements, all this will be OK with me.
I am hoping they don't start saying "the old movements were terrible and we decided to introduce our own much improved movements".

In the tech world this sort of "manipulation" happens all the time; for example when INTEL intros a new processor, all of a sudden,
yesterdays "beast" is now CR*P.... Same with Microsoft.....Vista is # 1 and XP is full of it....etc....

Everyone (so called watch experts) will now start to do head to head comparisons and expose all the flaws of the old movements; this flaw admission will indirectly benefit Breitling (who will keep quiet), cause 90% of all Swiss Manufactures use this so called "inefficient ETA movement". The bad mouthing will be all over the internet, Breitling will love it, will not endorse it, in fear of a lawsuit.....

Breitling better be careful how they react to this thing cause lawsuits will begin popping up everywhere (especially now with the "DEPRESSION") ...... my 2 cents worth EOM.

Personally I don't think Breitling will do anything to "bad mouth" the older movements. Bear in mind they won't be ditching the older ETA based peices overnight. For example, Panerai and IWC are both manufacturers and yet their ranges still include a huge number of modifed ETA equiped pieces too. General form seems to be to "play up" the in-house pieces while doing nothing at all to give bad press to the other pieces. I can't think of a single reason why Breitling would want to effectively say, "OK, we've been making cr*p until now".

The other thing to remember is that all watchmakers make a considerable amount of cash from servicing older pieces. If Breitling were to put people off buying older pieces on the secondhand market, they'd be damaging a potentially lucrative income stream for a number of years until the in-house movements start coming up for service.

I think you'll see the in-house pieces grabbing all the headlines (and rightly so IMHO), but the other pieces will continue to quietly run alongside them until ETA finally turn off the tap.

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator

Remember that the suggested initial production numbers are 50,000 a year. Badmouthing ETA and Valjoux would be like saying "Every watch we have made in the last 25 years is useless, and 75% of what we are making now is no better"

As Driver8 says, this is the attention getter, but it's only the start of the transition process.

I resonaly think we will start to see prices of older models drop as people who must have the latest and greatest sell the old to buy the new,So i think there will be a flood of old ones coming up for sale soon,Which is news I like

_________________

i disagree, i did and do worry about that but then look at the vintage pieces, if it doesnt look different or have different comps people wont care.

or so i hope

I sometimes wonder if all the talk regarding movements means a lot, i.e. new/old, in-house, etc.
A manufacturer having an in-house is definately a prestige thing. I can't see any of the movements in any of my Breitlings (and I ain't gonna take the back off). I do think that Breitling has and will continue to have quality movements in their watches. All of mine do, even the B1, though it is quartz. I am assured of the quality cause they let me know what time it is as well as the date and one of them will let me know the moon phase when the sky is cloudy.
An in-house movement does give bragging rights to Breitling, but if I were to get a watch with it very few people would know. I guess I could wear a sign.

Anyway I think that all of my watches, including Breitlings have in-house movements - except when in car, in office, in outdoors, etc.

_________________
Regards,

Mike

I think this whole topic is another one of those things that you either "get" or "don't get". Or should that be that it either matters to you or it doesn't.

Personally (as I said in another post recently) the last 6 months or so has really opened my eyes to in-house movements as they invariably offer something a little bit different to the multitude of 7750-based watches out there.

But as with all things watch-based, it's each to their own.

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator

Same thing happened with the MUSTANG V8. Everyone loved the old fashioned pushrod 5.0L V8 but once the new and improved modular, modern, sophisticated etc V8 was introduced.....