The Breitling Watch Source Forums

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

A Venus chrono wreck with the crudest "Breitling" markings I have ever seen:
BREISLING !
informed the seller, who most prbably did not notice this ?

Dial script is correct imo.

I think I could've engraved the "Breitling" better with my feet...

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

There was a lot of hand enscribing of the movements and cases when the US started to change the way imported watches were imported and taxed in the 1940's. I've read that before the machining process and importers were lined up to accomodate the new tax laws that the watches that were already produced had to be modified with the importers information to avoid being taxed. Breitling wasn't the only one doing this and I've seen other manufacturers from the same time period with this king of hand engraving. No explanation on the spelling but maybe just someone having a bad day.

In the case of the eBay example (and that's intended to be a pun), I think the three-letter import code would also have to be present to meet 1930s, 1940s US Customs regulations. I think by the mid-1940s, the company name had to appear too, but I'm not certain. That does not look like a Breitling case, so I wonder if the names were engraved as part of a restoration project that moved the dial to a different case.

The dial looks authentic, but beat. It's a marvel that the signature survived so well. It's a funny wear pattern, like someone dropped battery acid on it. Look how true the blue tachymeter chapter is.

Someone on another forum posted an article from a 1971 Popular Mechanics describing the prevalence of counterfeit watchs - Bulovas, Hamiltons, Omegas, Longines. I was surprised that it was so common in that era, and I can only suspect Swiss watches have been forged for decades before that.