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Emergency Coral Dial

My Chronomat Blue Dial Two Tone Bracelet Rose Gold /steel

My new Shark

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Omega21

This is my B13050.1.

Airwolf

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My Breitling team:
SuperOcean (blue, circa 2007)
Airwolf (black, circa 2009)

Hi Y'all ..
This will be my introduction to the Forum as well as my reply to the call for images of Breitling Watches ....
I log in as the "old5andimer" .. My name is Fred and I live in SW Florida...

First, allow me to explain ..
I discovered this remarkable forum shortly after "discovering" that I had unknowingly purchased a Breitling 1st generation pink gold Chronomat 769 along with all the contents of a local estate.
Let me take a step back and explain that for the past 37 years I have been purchasing and reselling Estate contents, working as an active personal property Auctioneer and Antiques dealer, starting first in New England and now I'm based in , SW Florida, the land of great fishing and also pretty good "estate picking."

My Breitling Chronomat came to me from a regular house call, of which I make upwards of 35 to 50 per month, along with other general personal property that the inheritors had decided to liquidate. Nestled among the randomly discarded costume jewelry and old, unworking "dollar watches" of the late 20th century in all "fashionable styles," and all stuffed in an oversized dresser top Jewelry case, this discarded "Jewel" was long forgotten ..

At first, I was unsure whether or not it was correct but, after taking it to my local "Watch Doctor" who has, over the years nursed back to life many of my horological discoveries, he assured me that "Yes, this is a pretty good find" ...
And then to discover this wonderful forum and it's freely shared knowledge and expertise by so many with finite knowledge of the product ... (however intimidating the rhetoric may seem when critiquing the discoveries of so many fakes listed on ebay) has been enlightling.

I thank you all for the hours of entertainment reading the posts and learning about Breitling watches and the incredible knowledge of the members and the following that this product has developed.

The watch that I had discovered in that Jewelry Box had a gold plated, or at least gold colored metal band that I believe was original to the watch and much too small for my "oversized' wrist, and the winding stem or crown was bent at a fairly acute angle to the case ... It still was able to be wound however, it didn't seen prudent to me to try and use the watch as it was so, off to the Watch Doctor we went.
He assured me that to change the crown was not a big problem ... It would not be original but I would be able to wind the watch. Deal done .. and the original but damaged crown was saved as old habits are very difficult to break.

The watch appears to run fine with all function operating without problem.
The short side to this story has been the rotating crown which has, with little effort when wearing the watch, has come off on two separate occassions. I have since read on this forum that this has occured on other watches of this period and the solution seems to be equidistant spaced fasteners inserted into the rotating bezel ... which to this novice, seems to defeat the purpose and design of the watch ??
Not to mention altering the originality of a vintage timepiece.
Long story short ... I am reluctant to wear this fine timepiece for fear of losing the bezel or damaging the face and works.

This all being said ... I am asking for advise and, back now to the purpose of this thread, I am listing several pictures of my Breitling Chronomat.. Please forgive my photography skills as my posted images of the works are not the best .. I can only hope for adequate.

I hope the Forum shares the knowledge regarding my bezel problem and I'm looking forward to the concensus of opinions regarding my discovery.
I thank you all in advance ..

Fred Elliott
old5andimer

Welcome Fred. Not experienced the bezel problem myself, but post a topic specifically about that in the Vintage section and I'm sure someone will have an answer - it might get lost in this thread.

Great watch!

Thank You ..
I appreciate the comment ..
I'll post my question about the bezel in the Vintage section and see what I am able to find out ..
old5andimer

Sorry that I have not had the chance to add photos for a while! I will be gone for the next few weeks so won't be able to until after I return and have things in order again!

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http://www.breitlingsource.com - http://blog.breitlingsource.com

My new Aerospace with Black dial.

The Dream Team SOH 46

Here are a couple of my old Aerospace:









Mark

a few of my B4B GT