The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello
new here and enjoying it

I received a breitling gold chronograph with two littles dials, man model, strap gold on it is written Pat Pending made in Germany 750 "R+W" italic and "R+W" in a square elegantia fix.
On the back of the warch there is not number just Breitling
I am trying to find out what model it is
It was bought in the 60s or 70s
I tried to post pictures but whether in pdf or tiff i get "The image file you tried to attach is invalid."
why my pictures don't upload, I don't know

If somebody could give me a hint i would be gratefull
tartarine

jpg files up to 256k can be attached directly, info re larger files here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=453

no way to tell you anything about the watch with your description only,
although the caseback with only "Breitling" worries me.

thank you watchfred

hope it is going to work

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interesting. dial looks authentic Breitling, but caseback is very strange,
would need a pic of inner caseback and movement - hope others know more.

Well, first off......

Moving this one to the right forum and deleting the duplicate topic.

Now, dial looks absolutely fine, although not the hands I would expect to see. Case is odd, but stamping looks pretty good, definitely want to see the inside of the caseback and the movement before calling it for sure.

thanks you for your answers
I'll try to get it open without damage but it is quite scary for me
I'll post the pictures
I know for sure that it was bought from a known watchmaker shop in Geneva back then
I seem to remember that it was repaired or cleaned or...
and I may find some more info if I can find the repair bill ??

thanks for now

tartarine

it is a screw back, so u should definitely have a watchmaker w/ the correct tools open it.
interesting piece indeed
pics are the only way to tell for sure

yes u r right, watchfred

i'll have it opened for me
hope I can still take pictures

more about it on tuesday
thanks for ur interest
tartarine

hello again

went to a Breitling dealer. Had a little smile when I asked him if he could open it )

but he did
so here are the pictures.
He said the backcase is original
I found a bill from 1983 stating that the hands had been changed, did not say why .
the watch maker who did that is a man who was specialised in grand father clocks so may be he did just not bother to order original ones for a chronograph
the dealer today did not know what model it is, which was actually my first question.

I think it would be nice to find catalogues after 1960 and prior to 1972 if I remember right .
Does any one know where I could find/consult them? it is more for fun than anything else, but I would really like to know.





I enjoyed to learn something here
thanks to every body
tartarine

btw

can one find original hands any where , how can i know what they look like ??
would the dial have to be changed or can one just clean it and if yes with what ??

It was checked in 1994 ( found the bill for this revision too)
Seem to be working perfectly well although not in use for the last 10 years.

really nice actually
a few scratches ...but....

bye for now

tartarine

Cleaning is not a DIY job, the watch will need a service after 20 years and we have a member here chronodeco (Craig) who is highly recommended.

This watch is really confusing me. Nothing is what I would expect - the Breitling 17 jewels stamp on the movement bridge is unlike the stamping that I would expect to see, but looks factory done. The font of the serial number on the inside of the caseback is also unusual, the number itself dates to 1961 which I'm OK with. Is there any other number on the back - a 3 or 4 digit model number?

I think that it's fine, just really unusual.

Hello

no there is nothing else .
I took a picture of all the features
i may go to the shop where it was bought from sometime but it is about 300 miles away so it will have to wait a bit
I don't even know if it still exists.
Where does chronodeco live ?
what does the 17 juwels stamps actually mean ?

thank you
tartarine

as Roff said - nothing is as expected with this one, but strangely still
"feels" right. Had expected to see a 188 in it, because we saw quite a
lot of "different" watches from Italy based on this caliber, even that
proved to be a wrong assumption.


Bill ?

Lack of a model number, but inclusion of a serial number concerns me a bit.

chronodeco is in the US, but does work for many European members as well as people as far away as Australia - he's that good.

17 jewels means, well, that the watch has 17 jewels - artificial rubies in this case. They are used to reduce friction in the movement and are generally (but not exclusively) an indication of quality - to a certain extent the more rubies the better.

Here are my thoughts, though I think we can only assign rough probablilities to the different scenarios. At what point are we just making stuff up?

1. I do not believe that is a credible Breitling case. The caseback is wildly different from any we have seen and unusual for any solid gold watch. It's not a mid-1950s case and it should have a model number on it.

2. It's a very unfamiliar dial. But, to decide the dial is not genuine is to believe that now there is someone making a script "B" marker for the dial. I've been suspecting that is the case for a few months now and I note that the Chinese are now making an entire script "Breitling" for time-only dials and it's good craftsmanship (casting/moulding). That's seriously suspicious and I know we all doubt that anyone would be so crass as to fake vintage Breitlings.

3. I wish we had more catalog information from the mid-1950s (Richter, page 119). This one is a real departure from what we have before and after. I lean to this being a made-up piece. Do we have other examples of newly made script "B" on the dial?