The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello all-

I finally found the TransOcean that I wanted, a champagne-dialled Cal. 12 version at a price that I could afford:









Aside from a missing lume dot on the dial, it appears to be in solid 80-90% condition and even shows evidence of a service at least once in its past.

But here is where I have an uh-oh moment:



The caseback is for a 2119. Isn't the 2119 this rare black-dialled version of the TransOcean?



Can anyone confirm which model the 2119 was? Might it have been normal to put this caseback on a 2129 during a service?

Everything else about the watch seems to be correct and fine. The caseback fits, but I am in a quandary. I like the watch but am wondering if I should bother to contact the seller. Given the sale price (I was the only bidder and got it for a very low sum), I doubt he will be willing to refund anything. I also doubt if I will be able to find a 2129 caseback by itself.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks!

What convinces you that it's a 2129?

Here's a 2119 - http://www.antiquorumdirectbid.com/deta ... 9---848936

That's the question. I saw that Antiquorium auction before, too, and thought it mistakenly identified the watch, but perhaps I have been wrong all along.

I always thought the TransOcean 2129 comprised both the blue dial and champagne dial versions, having seen the reference number 2129 on casebacks for both those versions for sale in the past. I've seen the 2119 reference number only for the very rare white-dial/brown bezel and black dial versions.

So I'm back to the original query. Does this 2119 caseback make sense? After searching for a Cal. 12 TransOcean for so long, I thought I knew what I was looking for, but as I discovered, with Breitling, things like numbers are sometimes surprisingly misleading...

Now this is interesting.

As I like the late60s/early70s pieces very, very much and consider it the most creative and innovative period (groundbreaking Cal 11/12 inhouse movements, the only ones until last year, trendsetting designs - these TOs are 40 years old and the design still imho looks fresh and young) for Breitling next to the late40s/early50s with the sliderule Chronomats and Navitimers, I thought I know a little about these models.

I own a quite beautiful transOcean chrono-matic and it bears the model no. 2129 like all others I have personally seen and handled up to now. My first reaction was similar to danomars, that the caseback was replaced during service. The Antiquorum page was not very convincing as it describes the watch as having a Heuer dial, but, remembering some other of my wrong "shots from the hip", I decided to continue searching.

chrono24 and other sites brought no results for 2119s at all, but then I looked at the 1973 catalog (source chronomaddox.com, pic below) and MY transOcean (funnily called TransOzean with a Z in the catalog, not a c like on the dials) was listed with the model no. 2119 !

So danomars transOcean seems to be totally authentic, model 2119-b for blue/white dial.
A rare find indeed, congratulations !

Some pics below of my TOs and some close relatives below; as I said, I do love these Breitlings, WatchFred

The 1973 Catalog Crop, source http://chronomaddox.com/breitling/catal ... _1973.html:


My TO 2129 on the wrist & all alone:




Caseback and model no.


A very close relative:


with some more period pieces:

Oh...my...goodness... That collection is superb!!!

Mindblowing!!!

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

Vielen danke Fred!

That is the type of evidence I needed! Like Fred, I thought I knew the TransOcean series well, but last night I searched for sales of the champagne-dialled versions and found two others that had 2119 model numbers on their casebacks. I had assumed most Cal. 12 TransOceans were 2129's. One or two examples is not much to base a decision on, but the brochure seems to prove that the 2119 number is correct. I suppose mine is authentic then.

That Herbst brochure seems to be a very valuable resource! I wish there was more information available about the different Breitling models and their number designations.

I wonder if there was a point when Breitling decided to make all TransOceans 2129 versions? My sample dates from 1971 according to the serial number, so maybe the early ones were different...

a pleasure, danomar !

"Herbst" means autumn, so this brochure is late 1973, my 2129 is late 74.
a difference I notice is that 2119s seem to have a red date font, the 2129 black.
Breitling calls our dial color "white/blue", not champagne, by the way.

Well spotted. Some nice detective work.

There are quite a few catalogues from this period around the net - a couple of great ones on this site.



WOW. Lovely collection. Congrats and well hunted.

thanks for the compliments, jlee and yaffle, but some important pieces still missing in the lineup. a nice 7104 joined the pack yesterday, but the hunt goes on. WatchFred

Nothing else to say

, not an oops, blushing

Please share some photos of the 7104! I think many of us would love to see it!

will be happy to do that on monday, another one I have been hunting for a long time, seldom seen and quite nice.

danomar, here´s the 7104:

Beautiful! That's my favorite, the decimal version. Wear it with health!

May I ask how wide it is from lug to lug (12-to-6 o'clock)?
d