The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello.
I have no idea of the model or age of this watch,the serial number on the back reads 462559 its stainless steel and has a personal inscription on the back that is dated 1944.

Thanks in advance, Mike.

Well I can only comment on what I see and the dial is a fake.

Sorry.

Here are the insides.

That's a Venus 175 with no indication of being a Breitling - it looks like a generic watch that someone has put a fake Breitling dial on.

Here are some marks which i suppose have been done by different Watchsmiths,they are scratched inside the case. 5636*,R31238,1=14915,B 162311 and FSS 271. I had to Google Venus 175 as i know nothing about watches but found that Breitling did use them. Thanks for the answers so far.
Mike.

Breitling did use Venus 175, but so did literally hundreds of other watchmakers.

I'm sorry, this isn't a Breitling.

The marks are simple watchmaker marks from servicing.

Here is how i came to have the watch.My Brother rented a house after the old man that lived there died and left a house filthy and FULL of clutter of all sorts.The landlord said if he wanted to clear it he could have two months rent free.This watch was in a box of broken watches etc its lens was yellow and cracked it was missing a hand and the winder but the face was in fairly good condition and it said Breitling! Took it to my local Jewellers/watch shop to get it fixed but when it came back they had messed the face up so i complained and they fixed it at their own expense and to my eye the face is the same as the original.This is all about 10 years ago.As you can see this watch was obtained in the USA and given to this mans son in the US Army who i have tried to find out about all i can find is that he was'nt a casualty. So is it a Breitling or because there was a war on some dodgey watches were around.Lets have some more thoughts on this.
Thanks Mike. ps the long number at the bottom is the mans service number.

For the fourth time...........


It's a fake.

Sorry Clayton... if you need another opinion...

it's not a Breitling... That dial is off by a mile... I have never seen that kind of "Breitlilng" script on a dial... ever... even from this era...

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

All i seem to have is more questions than answers.I now know that the face the shop replaced the original with is crap! Here are some questions.
1 Is it a 40s watch or earlier
2 Is the Venus 175 a good movement.
3 If the original dial was right would it have been a Breitling.
4 How did Swiss watches get to the USA in the war.

I am not wanting to sell the watch so i am not trying to Big it up as they say.

Thanks in advance Mike.

1) I doubt it's earlier. It might be a 40s case - the style is consistent with that, but it could equally be 50s, or even into the 60s. The movement could be any time.

2) It's a solid movement, but nothing particularly spectacular. It was a well used, widely available movement.

3) No. There is nothing that I have seen that is Breitling. The case is kinda consistent with a Breitling case, but I don't think that it is correct.

4) Not sure if this is a war specific question or a question about US government policy in the 30s / 40s. The US government placed an embargo on the import of Swiss watches (nothing to do with the war) to try and protect the US watch industry. A number of Swiss watch companies got around this by buying / establishing American subsidiaries and shipping them parts for assembly in the US. In Breitling's case they purchased Wakmann and imported movements, cases, dials, hands, etc which were assembled by Wakmann in the US and branded as Wakmann. This isn't one of those either.

Interesting piece. The dial is an obvious redo. The movement could be an original since I've seen Breitling's with unmarked Venus 175's before. The case could be original and the serial number would put it prior to 1944 where there is a lot of grey area and it jives with the personal information on the back. The fact it doesn't have a reference number is not unusual when they get this old. I'd be interested to know if the watch was in VA, MD, DC, or PA since the mans service number indicates he was drafted in the 3 Corps area during WW2 which includes those states. I wouldn't mind having this one if I could find an original dial or have this dial redone accurately.

Paul

Thanks for the answers,i was happy in my ignorance until i came on here .

I missed that it also has a two piece case until I looked at the pics again. Seen that before on B's too. So did you find the watch in one of the states I listed above? Funny thing is if that service number is 33,797,754 it doesn't match the military records file which says that number belongs to William Lu. If it's 33,797,794 there's no record of it. It's hard to tell from the pic.

Paul

No,i am over here in England, Dorset to be precise.As you know prior to D-Day the south of England especially Dorset was packed with US Troops (1st inf div for one) so that watch could have gotten here then? Thats all the info that i can find, where he was drafted and that he did'nt get killed.Mystery is how he was parted from it.

Mike.