The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Reading the board here I have seen several mentions of 'Pre Releases' or 'Prototypes'
I Have never been a believer in either one of these designations but I believe that somewhere in the past (or present) one or more parts have been replaced for parts from a newer series (ie total black sliderule rings replaced during service for red marked sliderule rings)
It was priority #1 to send out a working and repaired watch , not to retain the authenticity of the watch . Hence I always dismissed claims that spoke of 'Pre release' or 'Prototypes' based of component variations.

What is the opinion of the forum members here ?

Do Pre Releases & Prototypes exsist or not ?



(and I am NOT talking about blatently dreamed up & fabricated frankenwatches ! I am also NOT a believer of a single watch that was never taken into Production , ie 806 Rattrapante , for me these fall into the dreamed up category)

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

Well in most of the discussions on here these pieces have a single source that somewhat lacks credibility.

There are some watches that are prevalent enough to suggest that they are valid. 1968 Chronomatics are perhaps the obvious example, although I haven't seen any evidence that they actually hit the market in 1968.

Most prototypes would never have made it out of the factory, although I am sure that there are some that workers managed to 'liberate', however the vast majority of prototypes are downright fakes that someone tries to make a lot of money with.

. . . for which there is no documentary evidence, that the cases for these early Chronomatics were made up in anticipation of the final completion on the movement. I think the race for the first automatic chronograph well known in the industry and, to my thinking, Breitling might have been making and marking the cases waiting for delivery of the movements.

I think the date and celebration of the movement is just too well known for the first date of same for Chronomatic-based watches to be before 1969. [I'm trying to recall where I've read that whereas Zenith-Movado were first to put out a press release on their "El Primero" movement, it was only Breitling/Heuer/Hamilton that displayed automatic chronographs at the Basel exhibition that year.]

I agree Bill.

The actual chronology was that Zenith announced the El Primero first in late January 1969, but they didn't announce a watch. Breitling / Heuer / Hamilton didn't announce until Basel in March, but they announced the movement and watches at the same time and those watches were available by April or early May. Zenith automatic chronographs were not available to the public until June.

Jeff Stein's article "project 99" talks about the production cycle for the first chrono-matics.

"The Chronomatic group had produced 100 prototypes of its automatic chronographs by the Fall of 1968, with Heuer and Breitling each allotted 40 of these pieces, and Hamilton-Buren receiving 10. (Dubois-Depraz used the remaining 10 prototypes for testing and development.)"

"The next event on the timeline of automatic chronographs was the Basel Fair, held in April 1969. At this event, the members of the Chronomatic group were able to show their dozens of pre-production samples of Chronomatic watches powered by the Caliber 11 movement, with multiple models from Heuer, Breitling and Hamilton, in a variety of cases and colors. By contrast, Zenith had only two or three samples of their automatic chronographs."

http://www.onthedash.com/docs/Project99.html

I assume that these pre-production watches by Breitling were close to the finished production models. We'll never know if they were assigned serial numbers or when those numbers were assigned, but it would certainly appear that they potentially had finished watches by the end of 1968.

However I also do believe that the ones we are seeing are not from this tiny first batch of forty.

Coming back to the general question of pre-proudction models, the first Cosmo I feel would qualify. Initially badged Navitimer and with the ref 806, this is to my mind indicates a model that Breitling had put out in prototype and which they quickly established a brand name and seperate ref code. 809.