The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I assume the stubborn Danish guy is Kurt :

Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - 09:09 pm:

I have pursued this topic on several watch discussions boards. A number of self-proclaimed Breitling experts strongly denied the existence of any original Navitimer fitted with a Valjoux 72 movement. A stubborn Danish guy, however, wrote to Breitling and actually got their confirmation that in 1954-55 some Navitimers were fitted with Valjoux 72 movements, due to a temporary shortage of the otherwise common Venus 178 movement found in almost all vintage Navitimers.

In Japan, the vintage Valjoux 72 version of the Navitimer is app. 20% more expensive than the Venus 178 version. I have no experience from other markets.

Or :

"The year is 50 BC, and all Gaul is occupied. Only one small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. "


link to the post
http://www.classicwatch.com/discus/messages/24/893.html

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

That's funny - 2003, but it seems like 'ancient history' now.

The 20% has surely shot up to much more since then:), were the v72s looked at with suspicion back then in other countries meaning prices lower than their Venus counterparts?

I bought my 1st B (Colt automatic) in 1999, Ive always wanted a Breitling and that is the one I could afford at the time. I only started looking at them with a 'collectors' eye in 2004 . But Vintage was only found on JM's Navitimer.net website, Altro's article's on WUS and I believe Kurt just wrote the 1st version of his article on watchlife.

There wasnt a whole lot of info available to the enlish speaking world. Japanese (and I believe Italian) were more forerunners on the vintage (Breitling) front. The Navitimer origins were shrouded in a lot more mist than these days but I remember that Valjoux 72's have always demanded a premium over the Venus 178's . I never understood quite why and they popped up on Ebay a few times a year and smart collectors probably snagged them up for (looking back) reasonable prices

When I was in Tokyo & Yokohama a few years ago (2006) you could choose from many Navi's with V178, many all black AVI's , either digital or normal 15 mins counters. But no V72's that I could find , that also gave me some clue of their scarcity, and the 20% that the original poster referred to is a 20% on top of the 'normal' prices you'd pay for a V178

But I do remember that a lot of people questioned the authenticity of the V72 pieces, as they had no reference number on the back , they looked 'different' etc. so only in the last 8 years or so , with a lot of assistance from Kurt , more and more people accepted that these were authentic and maybe even the 'Original' Navitimer/

Having done a little bit of research on my own the last years I support Kurt's opinion as the bead count, AOPA wing, A-symmetric case , BOW , early known ad's etc etc all points in that direction

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

Wow, thanks for the history Dracha.

I propose we nickname the v72 806 Navitimer the "Kurt Broendum" for Kurts's pioneering reasearch on them, everyone agrees? Not strange to do that really, here's a gentleman Marcello Pisani on the Rolex forums who's got a Rolex Comex dial named after himself for his pioneering research on the Comex Rolexes http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.p ... ght=pisani

On a related note, see this Rolex meet some of the forumers inthe UK had, offcourse that's an extreme collection(understatement?):) http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=216381 , maybe time we have some vintage Breitling meets too!

The Broendum Breitling / A Broendum Breitling

as a nickname for a '54 V72

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

Sounds cool, I like, so

the 1954 Navitimer Valjoux72(that was a mouthfull) is the "Broendum Breitling" from today to honour Kurts deep work with Navitimers, sorry Kurt that for once you didn't have a say in this little detail to do with the Valjoux 72 Navitimers:), thanks for sparking our interest in Navitimers and Breitlings in general!(hope we haven't embarrassed you:))

1954 Navitimer Valjoux 72 aka the Broendum Breitling!!!!

me likes

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

all for it, Kurt would deserve this.

So while Kurt is still asleep , should we define what a Broendum Breitling is ? , or is that self evident

-: V72 Movement
-: 1954
-: 125 Beads
-: AOPA wing (or also the 'B' but I haven't seen those from '54, maybe we should ask Kurt )

Anything else ?

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

Looks good!