The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello,
My lovely bride bought a pre-owned Navitimer B1301 for Christmas. 18K trim with cream dial. It needed work so I took it to a repair shop here in Dallas that has a "master" watch guy or whatever. He said the chronograph function of the watch is broken and it really can not be fixed since it is so old. He said they could ship it off to Breitling but did not think they could fix it either. He said he could get it all tuned up and it will tell time perfectly, etc. but it will not have function of the stop watch function. Does this sound correct to you? It is a reputable place here and they were recommended but wanted to check. They are charging me $450 to completely service the watch. Seems reasonable as that is about what I was charged to get my Rolex worked on a few years ago from a different place. Which was actually quite a bit less expensive than taking it to Rolex which has a place here.

The watch did not come with a band. I am looking for a brown leather band which is 22mm in size. I am going to check on Ebay and found a place online which sells new ones for about $250-$350. I will not mention the name of the place since it is probably against the rules of the board which I have not read yet. First post. Any suggestions on where to find a band would be appreciated.

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

You haven't mentioned whether the watchmaker is Breitling approved, but what he says makes no sense. Send the watch to BUSA in CT yourself and they will provide you with an estimate for what needs doing - service and repairs.

No idea whether the price quoted is good or bad - calf vs. croc and tang vs. deployant clasp will make a huge difference, but eBay is rife with fakes. If you want a genuine strap stick to an AD - we have US based forum sponsors, in particular Govbergs in PA who come highly recommended, or try the Buy / Sell section. For aftermarket strap suggestions take a look at some of the threads in the watch accessory section to get some ideas of what sort of thing you like.

No, but I do have another suggestion for you

'Find a proper watchmaker first and then go from there'

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard