The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Is it just me or are there many variations of these rattrapantes?

all of them are sweet~~~

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

Yeah there are quite a few different rattys out there, some rarer than others. The 'good uns' are worth some serious money, unfortunately there are a lot of wrong ones out there that the sellers are trying to make silly money on, and you don't have to look too far away from here to see an example.

i think they were produced from the late Thirties into the Fifties. Not sure if any were made in the Sixties.



Yes indeed, because they use Venus or Valjoux movements and many other people made them they can be very tricky. In fact looking at the one I posted again, I'm not sure about that now as the Breitling logo appears right across the dial. Sadly the pics not good enough to tell.

The Christies website has a very good search engine. If you go to "Advanced search", then change the search field to "past sales" and the results field to "Price high/low" then keyword Breitling lots from their past auctions pop up. The other nice feature is when you look at a lot, it gives you a "related lots" side bar which makes it fun to browse through.

What then would be the earliest example of a Breitling wrist watch, if known? That may not make it the holy cup of wine, or the most valuable, but what would it be?

In 1915 Breitling produced the first wrist watch with an independent pusher to start and stop the chronograph, everyone else did it through the crown. I would consider this the first Breitling wristwatch chronograph or rather the first Montbrillant.(exert from Lang/Meis Chronograph book)

Richter shows this style of watch in a catalogue credited to 1928. This one was posted a while ago, sorry don't know who to credit.
What I'm not clear on is whether this was a unique movement or a modification to an existing movement (the book states a Lemania movement?). I also don't know if prior to 1915 they produced wristlets with pocket watch movements. Unlikely though as 1915 is about as early as chronograph wristwatches get.

I would consider this a grail.