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Here below is a summary of few things I found about the relation between Breitling and UTI. Please do not hesitate to add anything you know about it!

The watch manufacture UTI was first registered under the name UTINAM around 1906 by Georges Meyer.
UTINAM was the motto of the city of Besançon (birth place of the french horology): literally « Plaise à Dieu » in Latin (« pleasing to God »).


Source: forum.horlogerie-suisse.com

Until 1940, both names UTINAM, UTI and Etablissements Georges Meyer are used.
In 1940, UTI S.A is registered.

In 1912 UTI already has a very rich catalog with pocket watches, wristwatches for men and women, shape movements and luminous dials based on radium (invention developed in 1904 with Pierre and Marie Curie and the manufacture LIP).


Luminous dials using radium
Source: @chp forum.horlogerie-suisse.com

At the end of the war, Jacques Meyer, grandson of Georges Meyer takes over the family business and focuses on high end watches through partnership with jewelers like Van Cleef and Arpels.


Advertisement from 1964
Source: @chp forum.horlogerie-suisse.com

With more than 450 employees in the 70’s, UTI will unfortunately not survive to the quartz crisis and will close definitively in 1984.

In the 50’s, strong partnerships are concluded with some watchmakers like Breitling, Lemania, Glycine, Universal Genève…
Was it only a distribution contract through UTI network or also an after sale service like with LIP? Conditions of this partnership are not very clear to me.

Few Breitling have surfaced with an UTI signature but based on what we have seen, we can estimate that the partnership with Breitling most probably started in the second half of the 50’s and ended in the first half of the 60’s. Was it stopped concomitantly with the start of the partnership with LIP? I don’t know but that’s an assumption.

Breitling ref 765 AVI:

This is the only one 765 AVI found with this UTI signature. Also, no UTI dials have been seen on later 765 AVI and CP (reverse panda versions) up to now.


Source: @watchfred

Breitling Navitimer ref 806:

As for the 765, UTI dials have been seen only on all-black 806 like the one below:


Source: lesrhabilleurs.com

Breitling Chronomat ref 808:


Source: Auction archive

Breitling TransOcean:


Source: watch.ru

well done, Nicolas !!!

Nice research Nicolas and thanks for taking the time to share it!

Great stuff Nicholas, well done and thanks for sharing.


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Very interesting!