The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello again.

This was just finished on eBay (no bids) but I thought it looked interesting..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0326974457

Any thoughts?

Regards,

I think this is the correct link - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0326974457

This is a frankenwatch for sure. I don't recognise the movement off the top of my head, would have to look at my references, but there are a number of give aways. Most obviously is the serial number - if accurate it would date to somewhere around 1920. The dial may be real, but is more likely a refinished dial by someone who has access to a stamp, and the hands aren't terribly Breitling like. The case could well be a Breitling style case of the 1940s, but you could also say that it looked like a lot of manufacturer's cases. The crown is definitely not Breitling.

But I thought serial number 339667 for a non chrono corresponds to 1945?

This is an interesting debate. The Navitimer.net non chrono serial number list is interesting - I've not seen any reliable source that validates these early numbers (pre 1956) when the differential is reportedly so large between chrono and non-chrono. I have also seen suggestions that it is incorrect because these numbers had been used previously in a purely sequential system.

It's possible that there are two serials of these early ones, I'm just not 100% convinced - and there's enough other stuff wrong here.