The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi guys,

Iam new here, my name is marcel i live in vienna-austria. i bought a breitling vintage chrono 765 AVI last week.
Now someone told me my bezel is incorrect for the serial and the bezel is fake.

My watch has 1,02 million Serial wich dates 1965. (or not?) i was told 1965 it must have the silver metall bezel and not the black one that comes later.

also the print of the numbers should not be correct.

Can someone of you explain whats up with the watch and the bezel?

thank you very much.

here are pictures: (if they are too bad or small, let me know i will take new ones.)



here is the sphere missing:











thanks i advance

Serial is for 1965, and while I would need to do more research to be 100%, I think that a black bezel is OK for that period.

Looks like a legit co-pilot bezel, but since it's an AVI I can't really recall 100% either. Nice piece ... ( for me)

_________________
"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

thanks guys for your statements.
seems there was a so called transitional period? (old head, new bezel.)
also there is the possibility that the first (?) owner changed the bezel from the metal look a like like to the newer looking black one.

i know that "problem" from other watch brands. they used what they had in stock.

thanks for your input.


br marcel

Could be... but most AVIs I've seen have the shiny one with black numbers... but nevertheless I don't think of it as a super big issue for me at least... it looks kinda nice...

_________________
"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

Yeah, it looks really nice on the wrist!

. . . I would not worry about very much. The wear on the bezel seems to match the watch and it looks all correct.

I don't think anyone can say for certain that the watch wasn't first sold with that bezel. We've gone over the issue of dating casebacks, and if we think all we can say is that the caseback number was applied in 1965, it might be the watch was finished some time later for retail. We have examples of other models, like the first Cosmonautes or 1963 Navitimers, when all we can say is that a change was made sometime in a period. Here, can it be that all we can say is that a change was made sometime between 1965 and 1969 (the catalog image).

I see Rene is selling a 1965 that appears all correct and with a steel bezel.

But, and above all, to me this is not about Co-Pilots. This is a Raquel Welch issue. Did we ever get a serial number off her steel-bezel Co-Pilot in Fathom?

I have always thought the AVI comes with the silver bezel and the Copilot with either. Interestingly I had a 1965 AVI at the same time I had a 1965 Copilot. Both had the silver bezels but the Copilot also came with a new black bezel (red triangular pointer at 12) included in the original box and paperwork. The black bezel looked like it was nos so thought the original owner had perhaps bought it at the same time as the watch to have another option. Perhaps it was unused because he didn't want to risk damaging the watch in the R&R process. It could be correct that in 1965 both models were still initially silver bezel offerings but the Copilot was gradually implemented with the black bezel around that time. Unfortunately a system crash got my pictures last year.

I also thought the AVI was with the SS/Silver bezel and the Co-pilot with the black , the only one I have ever seen with both was a french seller on a french forum that had both the silver and black one with (i believe) a 1965 AVI CP
and my spare (black) bezel looks exactly the same as this one , even with the numbers slightly more to the outside of the bezel .
woul be interesting to find out which year had black , which silver , AVI or CP or both .. another 'nice' investigation !

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

From what I've seen there is a transitional AVI/Co-Pilot sometime around 1961/1965 which is essentially then just rebranded as a co-pilot. I believe that the later 7650 is then a different case, but I've not handled one and done a side by side so can't say for sure.

The original AVI until this transitional model, so 1956'sh to 1961 (the second model with the three black subdials) has the deep stamped back and a steel bezel which has locking pins through the side. The later white dial AVI doesn't have these pins which makes me think it is a change of design.

The first AVI has a steel bezel which is fully numbered.

The second AVI/Co-Pilot - which no longer has pins and white subdials now (and I think is a new case), has a steel bezel which has only the even numbers present. However the black bezel that goes with this one and then the co-pilot has a black bezel which is fully numbered like Marcels.

In "The Book" on page 170 there's a catalogue which is mid-Sixties which shows a Black bezeled AVI 765 with white subdials. So it seems both were used for this one.

I suppose there is one small question about the black bezel, which is if the 765 CP and the 7650 CP was the same bezel. I don't know if they were interchangeable or not, but that's splitting hairs.

And the steel bezel was worn by Raquel Welch in Fathom.
Although obviously it wasn't waterproof.

Thank you guys, do you know where i can get a shiny steel bezel??

Ebay , they show up like once every 10 years and be prepared to pay a top price

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

Hmmmm sounds not so pretty. I would also consinder
A trade against the black one. Plus some cash at the top.

Maybe someone has a silver one and would like the black one.

thank you guys for your help!

watch is now on ebay

i hope its ok to post a link.

It is not.

Link removed.