The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Except for the new B01 (and hopefully more yet to come in-house movements) I've understood that Breitling purchases ETA ebauches (or is it fully assembled ones?) and then modifies the movement a bit hence it turns into Caliber XX for whatever movement it might be. My question however, is, how much do they modify the movement?

Take for example the ETA 2824, which I assume turns into the Caliber 17 and the Valjoux 7750 which is transformed into Caliber 13. For these two movements, how much is actually modified with changed parts?

Thank you for any help with this matter.

This has come up countless times before and the bottom line is that no one knows for sure.

Breitling does purchase ebauches and immediately replaces some parts. Other parts are tested to tighter tolerances than ETA use and are replaced if they don't make the grade. Other parts are refinished. Breitling do not reveal how many / which parts they actually modify / replace.

Additionally there is fairly strong evidence that some ETA bases are actually now partially or completely produced in house now - i.e. just using the design but producing parts themselves.