The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi there,

I'm another non-expert coming here to ask for any input about the authenticity of a watch I have. Please forgive me if it is an obvious fake or something. The photos I took were too big to post here, so I put them on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/vaB7QKn (if you want me to make lower quality ones to post here directly then I can do that)

Notes:
- I don't think the strap is original so I didn't take photos of it
- The hands and face are illuminated with superluminova or similar, not tritium. I have read that sometimes people have this applied after the tritium has decayed. Is that true and/or common? Or is this a obvious sign of a replica? Also, the illumination is a lot weaker than a modern Seiko watch I have after being exposed to the same light.
- The screen doesn't feel like glass or crystal.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this! I'd really appreciate any feedback. I can take more photos if that would be helpful.

What is fine, straps are not important... nice example.

Wayne

Wayne you missed something — the caseback is from an 806...so not completely correct I fear.

Ah, what should the caseback be?

809 if it’s a cosmonaute. Can you confirm it has a 24 hour movement?

Ah okay. Yeah, I can confirm it actually has a 24 hour movement.

Although there is insufficient clarity in the photos, the lugs look like they are missing the sharp edges, so likely the watch has been polished/re-brushed at some point...although not badly. Dial looks clean and the crystal is made of plexiglass, hence why it doesn’t feel like glass.

Thanks everyone for the info! I tried to get a better photo of the lugs but I had trouble due to my camera and the lighting.

The bezel looks like a SMEB, which I don’t think was available on the 809.

It was indeed.

Kurt B http://www.kurt-b.com

Funnily enough, I came to the conclusion that the SMEB wasn't available on the 809 based upon info from your Navitimer timeline.

I have one on a 1965 serial so that's restriction to 1964 isn't precisely correct either. I think I recall Kurt saying he was going to update the timeline and knowledge base as he's learned and discovered more since his original publication.

That is a correct observation. My timeline is constantly being worked on to improve it, and it’s not long ago I realized that there was SMEB 809’s.

Kurt B http://www.kurt-b.com

Much to be learned (and appreciated) from these discussions of authenticity, especially when the details of the ‘whys’ are elaborated on.
Forgive my lack of knowledge though. What is SMEB ? I can only come up with “small beaded edge bezel” ... but pretty sure that’s not correct.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Special Milled Edge Bezel

Kurt B http://www.kurt-b.com