The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Back from the watchmaker,
some photos for sharing.
I want to thank Roff for his support
and a special mention to Yaffle, discerning enthusiast and collector.







For more pictures : http://jalbum.net/a/834680/

Cheers, Laurent

Great set of pictures , thanks for posting !

do you have any 'before watchmaker' pictures ?

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

Looks fantastic - congratulations!

<---------- happy for you
<----------- ME

I want one so bad... congrats!

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

before : http://img27.imageshack.us/g/dsc03841r.jpg/

after : http://img140.imageshack.us/g/lugb.jpg/

The only thing we were not able to achieve is to find a correct plexy height at 36mm,
we found only a 35mm despite intensive searches including asking to Craig @ Chronodeco,

cheers, Laurent

Its nicely done , but I hope you dont mind me saying I would have never done it this way
Please dont see this as critique to the work done but the new inscription on the back would raise alarm bells in my head as it looks like someone tried to copy an original engraving and I for one would not want to buy it as I would always suspect something fishy , even though it clearly is all OK now and you know what happened , in 20, 30 or 40 years from now that knowledge might be gone and collectors may question the watch for that reason (again.. this is my personal opinion , not critique !)

and the top of the lugs , I do not believe they were originally brushed but polished ? , only the sides of the case were brushed

I believe the watched was a very good and probably untouched example before the 'makeover' but I do not believe it gained any value by this restoration ? but other watch enthusiasts will most likely have a different opinion

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

It's the nature of the beast - it gained value for those that like the restored, close to new look and it lost value for those that like their pieces original - c'est la vie!

Well, I know collectors who have all their pieces in "as new" condition, others who keep them all as they are.
In my opinion, both are right and wrong at the same time, mostly depending of the watch itself and its real condition/history.
I have some pieces that are unquestionably untouched considering the sun brush finish they still show with sharp angles, they only have some worn evidences which are OK with me.
The point is this watch had been polished at some point in its life including the case back and it had not been done by a talented person.
So instead of keeping it with its over-rounded lugs and dowdy case previously polished, I preferred to have it back with sharp edges.
This is an endless topic and at the end, my view is that any watch collector should have his watches as he loves to wear and enjoy them.
The only key factor where I think most of the collectors are aligned is the dial which must obviously stay untouched.

cheers, Laurent

I'm a semi-purist I guess you can say...

I'll usually spiff up some of my pieces up to a certain point... (ie. case, caseback) but the dial is where it stops too... I'll drink to that Laurent...

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

. . . because, to the best of my knowledge (and I miss a lot), we don't have a catalog or advertising reference to a 7650 with the yachting configuration. From the handset, dial, and bezel, I would have guessed your model was from later than 1969. Here's an example that is also dated 1969 with a handset, dial, and bezel that more closely matches the mid-1960s Co-Pilots and the one in the 1969 catalog. Can you give us some history of your watch?

Here's a pic of my 1969 7650.

Congrats Laurent, given what you started with I think the case work has been wonderful and for me really enhanced the watch.

Kurt showed a restoration that returned the sharp edges to a polished watch a while ago, and besides a Rolex service,
I've not seen anyone else achieve that until now.



From the pictures you show, I don't believe the watchmaker added engravings that weren't there before, to my eye he has merely spun the back to remove some of the scratches.

In terms of the engraving itself, I managed to find another couple of examples to look at. Noodia's back.

The back engraving seems consistent to me with the other examples, which is interesting, obviously your caseback is in much better shape than the others, but they all seem to have this almost "by hand" engraving. Do you have a caseback shot of yours Paul?

Either way it seems to me the marking were already on the watch when you bought it, please correct me if I'm wrong.

The handset seems consistent, both with Pauls and the other examples I've seen.

http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=226
http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... ctionid=30
http://www.antiquorumdirectbid.com/deta ... hronograph
http://jewelry.ha.com/common/view_item. ... t_No=60039

What's interesting, and I've seen this one a few dials like this, is that the owners added thicker markings to the fifteen minute counters, clearly these were used seriously by their owners.

I'm sure you will enjoy wearing it, I know I would.

Regretfully sold mine last summer but the engraving was the same on the back and inside the back cover. Looked like it was done by hand and freaked me out when I first saw it until I realized they were all like that.

. . . taking into account that two are the same watch (1278802) all show a different combination of hands (two mis-matched sets), bezels, and dials.

The serial numbers shown are all in a narrow range for 1969. We need an ad or catalog.

Forgot to mention, I know where there's an nos dial for sale for one of these if anyone needs it. Reasonable too.