The Breitling Watch Source Forums

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/RARE-BREITLING-N ... 43c19650db

Just have a look on the description of this nice Navitimer 7806S . The caseback is stamped 7808S . I have seen several 7806 with a 7808 caseback .
I personaly have a similar 7806 with its caseback stamped 7808 . Chronomat 7808 and Navitimer 7806 were very similar and it is not easy to make the difference btw 7806 and 7808 in reading without a good magnifier .

It is right that production numbers were very low during the last years of the old Breitling company , and many strange things were issued using available parts.

Mr Wajs confirmed that many of the 7806 S that he got from Breitling and transformed into his Aviation 6087 had 7808 casebacks .

Is it somebody here with other examples of this "deviation" ?

me

Well, Fred, so we can assume it as legit ?

the last years at Breitling were a time of turmoil without doubt and and we have now seen quite a lot of these pieces - but there is still no proof these watchs were really assembled by Breitling and not out of the components that Willy sold off, so I hesitate to call them legit.

Actually Albert Wajs is the best (maybe the only) surviving witness, so his claims have a lot more weight than any assumption we could make - though still with shadows of doubt, at least as much as the Datora we shy away from calling legit or not.

the inventory remaining with the company when it closed in December 1978 was divided between Willy's two children. One half of that inventory went to Ron Geweniger at Old World Jewelers. My conclusion is that if the watch does not match the items in that inventory, then the watch is likely assembled from parts, which were sold off as part of the liquidation of the company in 1979.

So, I'm on the side that rejects the "crazy things happened" during the turbulent 1970s. My belief is that the inventory of finished watches was in good order when the company closed.

The seller says this watch was assembled from available spares and I can believe that. I wonder how the movement is marked.

In the limit of my informations
1/ all the watches coming from Oldworldjewellers had a white paper label sticked on caseback => sticked before leaving Breitling factory or after inventory?
2/ all the watches issued by A. Wajs under Aviation brand had neutral caseback . He told me that removing all visible Breitling marks was a condition of the contract
3/ most of the NOS casebacks that I saw had a transparent protective sticker
4/ according to informations got from A. Wajs , he removed engraved casebacks and kept them . He did not re-use them by surfacing, but used ade by former Breitling subcontractors . Answering to my question, he told that all his remaining Navi casebacks are engraved 7808 and 8806
5/ he resold most of his 8806 cases to Mr Sinn who reused them by tapering the 9' crownhole and drilled new crownhole at 3'.

It is not enough to deduce that a NOS watch with the paper label comes from OWJ and that a NOS watch with transparent label has been assembled from NOS parts . What about watches without caseback label , and what about work in progress watches assembled but waiting final check ?
Nothing clear enough to be 100% affirmative in one way .