The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello,
First off I'd like to compliment you guys on an excellent forum, although I'm not new to vintage watches I am new to Breitling and this forum has been a great resource so far.
Well I finally bought a vintage Navitimer, had been looking at them on and off for quite a while, I just fell across this one locally ...

From what I can tell, this 806 Navitimer is a circa 1972 gen V, with the Venus 178 movement.
As you can see, it has a bit of patina... Looks like it took a good hit at one point, and the crystal was broken and the dial got damaged.
The dial has scuffs on it, primarily between the seven and eight o'clock positions, and the second hand register is dented near the bottom.
The lume is gone from all of the indices, except for the 12.
The hands are are a bit rough with missing lume, and the second hand is red and bent, I'm guessing a replacement?
The case is in pretty good shape and has never been polished. The only exception is that one of the lugs is slightly bent downwards 1 or 2mm, it was probably dropped at some point.
The movement looks mint with no rust and runs, but obviously will require a full servicing.
Since the watch will never be original mint, I was thinking that I would go more for a sympathetic rebuild, rather than getting a full restoration?
I figured I'll get the dial cleaned up, but keep it rather than get a new service dial or redial.
I also figured that I would not get the case polished, just cleaned and left as is.

What do you guys think?

Happy New Year,

Paul

_________________
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn

I think I'd be getting those hands relumed, find the proper sweep second hand, and get it serviced if you plan on wearing it regularly. Should be a nice one to wear around. I personally don't like wearing perfect examples and risk bumping them.

If you need a new crystal Lester Harrison has some he's on Ebay as "mqw89mkm". I have bought one off him for mine he may also have a sweep second hand too.

Nice watch

Is the sliderule a replacement ? it looks in very good condition for it's age, as do the red bits

Probably, but that's not really an issue - they are almost 'service replacement' parts in my mind anyway.

Thanks for all the great feedback fellas.
I had contacted Lester Harrison through Ebay a few of days ago for a crystal and a set of hands, but haven't heard back yet, maybe away for the holidays.
I was thinking though that based on all the great recommendations on this forum, I'll probably contact "Chronodeco" to see if he would be interested in doing the service on it. I imagine that he has his own source for the crystal and second hand?

I'm not sure how to tell for sure if the sliderule is original to the watch, but if it's a service replacement it's old.






As a sidebar, I was reading a post by Kurt Broendum from a few months back, from what he was saying production on the 806 Navitimer ended in about '71, I'm guessing then that since my 1.39 serial shows as '72 on his chart, it must be near the very end?

All the best,

Paul

_________________
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn