Big thanks to Breitling Source in general and the hand full of dedicated vintage guys here for answering all my questions. In particular I'd like to publicly thank Fred. He has been a HUGE help and very patient with my endless PMs of "what about this one" or "is this worth it". In the end I managed to hold out for exactly what originally caught my eye. 3-register, white face, contrasting subs and the all important (in my mind anyway) orange second hand. Problem is I could never stomach the roughly $2K entry fee for a nice one given I had never actually seen one in person. I did buy a couple of vintage Zodiacs only to quickly sell them as the 35mm size is just too small...the thickness was really the issue. Recently I purchased a 70 Alsta dive watch and like it a lot more. That re-lit the fire under me to track down a vintage chronograph. The results are below. I think it just might be a diamond in the rough.
If a couple of years ago when I bought my SteelFish you told me I'd pay in the ball park of a grand or so for a 40 year old watch with cracked crystal, missing hand/pusher and beat up case I'd seriously laughed out loud. But then again this one did come with a swanky Speidel expanding band so maybe it was a deal at twice the price.
I'll revive this in the future when the makeover is complete. Nice how the hour sub hand found its way to be wedged into the minute and second hand, no?
