vintage wrote:
Seems like maybe the serial number error might be reason enough to make it collectible. Rare mismarks on other items generally increase their value. Might have to think on that a bit.
somehow that is true with all other collectables but not w/ Breitling
maybe we (and I dont just mean us here but the collector base as a whole) done too good of a job identifying these as 'not 53ies so therefor they're not collectable' and instead should have emphasized the uniqueness of these ?
I am still of the opinion that Breitling ordered cases from an EM (external manufacturer) by a set number , lets say 1000 pcs.
The EM then made them, case numbered them , and send them to Breitling to be assembled by Breitling into finished product as they were ordered by the distributors
As cases were made and numbered in batches (1000 pcs at the time ?) there's a finite number of 'misstamped' 806's , which should make them more valuable than the correctly numbered pieces . If the order number is low enough they should be valued higher than, lets say as an extreme example, the V72's ?
anyway , verifiable errors by other watch Mfg's are more valuable , why aren't these ?
possibilities :
1) Breitling is not collectable
2) Breitling is collectable but not a big enough collector base ?
3) Breitling is collectable , the collector base is big enough, but we (dont just mean us here but the collector base as a whole) have not made a big (enough) deal out of it ?
4) we just suck at hyping the brand and in particular the vintage significance and differences (misstamps, bezel count, AOPA vs. double plane vs. AOPA wing without AOPA)
5) or just maybe we have not done our own due diligence and document & publish our combined knowledge enough
if we (thats a 'we here on BS') keep knowledge to ourselves , collecting the rare pieces with that knowledge , but we're not telling the 'general public' why these are rare , are we expecting then that the 'general public' finds that out for themselves if we (the experts) dont educate them ?
Look at Rolex , Heuer & Omega , those are the 3 closest brands I can think of, and the vast amount of documentation that is out there and compare that with what we have (The Book, Richter and a few loose articles on the web on WUS , here , Kurt's site etc) we have not done a very good job advertising 'our' brand and make it collectable.
ok, this started out as a short reply to Paul and it got a lot longer
but you get where I am going Over the last years Kurt did a fantastic job at identifying the V72's as the 1st true Navitimers and advertising that (thanks Kurt !) So Kurt ? , when are you going to do the same for the other models ?
</rant & bedtime>
