The Breitling Watch Source Forums

This was a cannibalized 1947 Ref 181 with a venus 170 movement. When Craig received it he said it needed a fortune in parts and believed the parts were used for another watch. He painstakingly restored it. Another great job!

The Watch as purchased


Venus 170 with multiple missing parts


Venus 170 with parts replaced


Watch finished

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"A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure."

interesting signature on that movement, 1st I see on a V170 bridge, but watch is later than most 170s

Seems like the signed bridges on Venus 170's started on a few in 1946. Earlier pieces are usually unsigned. Knowing that helps weed out the fakes when the serial numbers are earlier and they have signed bridges. At least it makes me look at them closer if that's the case.

Fred & and Paul do you believe the bridge was a swap when everything was canabalized!

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"A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure."

I can't quite make it out in the pic but it appears to have a Swiss code on the balance cock and, if it says BOW, would authenticate the timeframe for me and the bridge being correct. I've seen a few of these before and they could have been assembled much later than the case date since the 1947-1953 period seemed to have a lot of case reuse by Breitling going on and would also explain the BOW Swiss code.

Thanks Paul for the info.

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"A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure."