The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I will be publishing the definitive Navitimer article in the British Horological Journal later this year, I just shot this picture of a beautiful patinated 1954 Val 72 AOPA Navitimer, and after having worked with it in Photoshop I'm quite satisfied with the result.

I haven't removed any imperfections or similar, just removed reflections of light and made it look as it does for real when you see it, as when you shoot macro pictures from a distance of less then 5 cm, a lot of small white spots that are not visible for the naked eys can be seen, not to mention small scratches on the crystal.

The corroded hands is a proof or originality, they are matt silver plated and they all corrode, if you see a val 72 with with hands they have been restored / painted, the starp is also the one it originally was purchased with.

It is the best 1954 Val 72 AOPA I have ever had.


/ Kurt B

Great picture Kurt. Simply gorgeous.

In your experience of the Navi's is there a quality difference between various dials, leaving aside the all black Navi's, are there major quality differences between the white sub-dialled ones?

Look forward to the article.

There’s a lot of small differences on the dials, some more attractive then others, I guess the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the quality is sky high on all of them.

Enjoyed your pic!
Amazing how they still managed to print some of the "15" seconds. Can't see (parts of) "45", (but at 6) "30" is partially visible; none of the "3", only some of the "0", which makes it asymmetrical.
But beautiful nonetheless

ps.: will your article also be available online?

It's like that on all the dials of the 1954 & 55 Valjoux 72 AOPA's.

It will be published here later on, as for now you can read what caused it all here http://vintageure.dk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=109

Kurt B

Mighty interesting! Thanks for your link