Trying to replace a watch I purchased between 1972 & 1976

hseldon · **Posted:** Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:53 pm

Ok here is the deal (and wow there is a wealth of info here but not quite anything to answer this question) sometime in the early to mid 70's (maybe as late as the later 70's) I purchased a chronograph I really liked.

Here is the story:
So I lived at home and save all of my money and one day walked into a large department store of some kind. I walked past a watch counter and saw this watch with all the dials and 'cool' stuff and said I must have that watch, so I bought it. One day while working on my dad's car I took the watch off so I could fit my hand down beside the engine to fix something. (here it comes) I set the watch on the car between the hood and the windshield and finished the work. I closed the hood and told my dad to take it out and see how it ran. Shortly after I went to see what time it was ... ()*&@$&@ I looked all over and walked down the road where he drove, I looked for quite some time. <sigh> no watch.

Fast forward, I've looked off and on for a replacement watch over the years. Some watched looked close but memory plays funny tricks. So what I would like is if someone could maybe give me an idea as to what I may have owned at that time. I've assembled a list of what I can remember and what I 'think' I remember.

Any ideas?

Thanks
william

If memory serves me right I paid a few hundred dollars for the watch (~250-350, but probably not more than $400).
I am positive:
it was a Breitling,
it had stopwatch 2 dials,
it had a logarithmic calculator dial,

Pretty sure:
it had a metallic band,
it had 3 stopwatch dials,
it had the date,

I think:
it had the day of week
it had a white face

I know it did not have:
a lunar calendar
a month setting

Roffensian · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:36 am

Well I'm glad that you're not making it too easy for me :shock:

Can you take a look at these two areas of the site:

http://www.breitlingsource.com/books_70s.shtml

http://www.breitlingsource.com/books_1969.shtml

and let me know if anything looks familiar.

That will help narrow it down a bit and then I'll try and come up with a few specific model numbers that it might be. Do you remember what shape the case was?

Foxyrenard · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:29 am

wow, that's great - didn't realise we had this there... doah.

GZGym1 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:23 pm

Wow this one is going to be interesting!!!! Keep it updated! Yes im talking to you Andy I wanna know how you went about finding it...

hseldon · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:29 pm

Ok I've looked at the links you provided and I also checked out the photos from the sigs in this thread, ok. The case was round and I seem to recall it was noticeable on the wrist.

a little like "A" but I think the stem was on the right? Or am I misremembering?
http://www.breitlingsource.com/images/l ... age_08.jpg

so the stem like the one on the left in this photo, wrong band, no patently obvious red anywhere on the watch.
http://www.breitlingsource.com/images/l ... age_19.jpg

The one on the left, but I just don't recall the stem being on the left. Dang I wish I had a photo somewhere that included the watch. The band looks closer.
http://www.breitlingsource.com/images/l ... age_09.jpg

This one kind of reminds me but I'm not sure if it's not just because I've looked at so many recently.
http://s362.photobucket.com/albums/oo67 ... Watch2.jpg

hmmm. Nice watch but I don't recall any red and the inner portion of the dial looks too busy. The outer ring looks about right.
http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

I recall a tach on the bezel as I'm reasonably sure I used it to time my hotrod for 0-100 while holding it in my hand. And I think the back of the watch was flat without all of the filigree.

I don't know if any of this makes sense or if I just need to stop looking at watches ;-)

Nah. Maybe I should just look for something the reminds me of what I used to have. I'm not sure if I've described what I used to own or if I've just invented a new watch =8-O

On the bright side I just (re)located my dad's old square faced Bulova, not fancy but he had it forever. Looks like this but I have no idea where this guy got his value from.
http://tinyurl.com/calvp9

Oh and your right I really like windup watches.

edit

When was this made? and did it come with a metal band and the right price range?
http://www.lesmala.net/jean-michel/navi ... v19652.jpg

GZGym1 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:49 pm

This one kind of reminds me but I'm not sure if it's not just because I've looked at so many recently.
http://s362.photobucket.com/albums/oo67 ... Watch2.jpg

Sorry if your watch was from between 1972-1976 cant be this one..This is my picture from my photobucket account of my Breitling for Bentley 6.75 started making these i think in 2004-2005

hseldon · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:04 pm

I've probably stared at too many watches over the past week or so 8-/ I'm going to see if I can find any photos that might have an incidental shot of it.

Roffensian · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:46 am

OK,

Let's start trying to rule out some options.

Here's a close up of a classic 70s Navitimer

(sorry borrowing your pics Alan!)

Three subs, no date and a slide rule bezel rather than a tachymeter.

There is a version with the date:

The chrono-matics had the left hand crown, and they were automatic watches rather than manual wind, so probably not one of those, although if the look was similar, how about one of these......

It's a lesser known Chronomat, manual wind - three subs, date, navitimer style slide rule but also a tachymeter. It's my best guess right now.......

Over to you.

hseldon · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:05 pm

Dang that's maybe kinda (real sure there huh ;-)

ringing a bell but I was pretty sure it didn't have red hands, eeeehm. So is the metal band a figment of my imagination because that's what I wear now or ...

Hmmm maybe it's time I gave my mom a call and see how well HER memory works :-O

Hang on I wonder if I have any photos upstairs.

In the meantime:
http://tinyurl.com/c6b735

He sent me some high res photos with a recent newspaper next to the watch, but I don't know enough to know if it's real.

Roffensian · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:13 pm

Don't worry about it not being on a metal bracelet - that would have been an option same as today, just because this one is on a strap doesn't mean that they weren't also available on bracelet.

Let me have a think for some non red hand versions of the Chronomat (I thought I'd nailed it first time there).

The eBay one is real - actually a Chrono Sextant rather than a Sexton - but it is a quartz movement with a mechanical chronograph module - i.e. the watch is quartz, the chronograph is mechanical.

hseldon · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:18 pm

Ah Ha! I found two old photos. No watch but it shows me misremembering because I can see the hint of a black or dark band on my wrist where the watch would be. Now if I didn't wear my watches 'upsidedown & backwards' (on the inside of my wrist) I'd be able to see something.

So no watch face in the photos I found but it shows my memory is not what I thought and that my watchband preference has changed.

So this is a bit encouraging, if I found two photos out of the paltry ones I have then I wonder if mom has a shot that might show my wrist???

So the one on ebay looks pretty clean in the pictures, is that price range reasonable?

<edit>
I found a couple older photos (pre Breitling) I definitely used to wear strapped watches only. hmm I totally forgot about that.

hseldon · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:01 pm

Roffensian wrote:

OK,

<snip>
The chrono-matics had the left hand crown, and they were automatic watches rather than manual wind, so probably not one of those, although if the look was similar, how about one of these......

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e398/ ... 08-600.jpg

It's a lesser known Chronomat, manual wind - three subs, date, navitimer style slide rule but also a tachymeter. It's my best guess right now.......

Over to you.

I looked at the one over at old world jewelers, you may have hit it here but I don't recall the slide rule. It's the best thing that matches my memory so far.
dang 3.5k these days, now I feel really sad :-(

Thats enough to put brakes on the MG and buy the fuel cell <sniff>

So if I'm wrong about the band then maybe it's one of these?:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7874

Roffensian · **Posted:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 5:48 am

Could well be a Navitimer - the reason that I opted for the Chronomat was the tachymeter scale - I'll keep thinking :lol:

hseldon · **Posted:** Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:39 pm

Well I don't know if I'm convincing myself or what but the more I look at that photo the more it seems 'right'. Is this a watch I'll be able to find? If memory, ok we all know what that's like, serves me I thought it had a nice solid feel but not like a brick was on my hand. I don't intend to really get into collecting at this point (sports car and racing is kind of sucking the $$ up rihgt now) but I'd like to get a good solid watch.

I've others that are fine for going out for dinner and wearing around the house and such, but ...

Roffensian · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:19 am

Most of the Chronomats of this are actually Chrono-matics with the left hand crown and the automatic winding, but there are some manual wind, right hand crown Chronomats around - it'll likely take some patience for one to come up though.

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