The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I received the Olympus Navitimer I bought off Ebay but it’s turned out to be as painful as the purchase of my Fighters from George at Govberg was pleasant.
I think I made every mistake in the book in trying to get hold of one of the very few Olympus’s around.
It was described as As New and Immaculate, but it’s clear that it has had an interesting life since 2003 and has been bright (and perhaps aggressively) polished to remove scratches etc. The seller, Juan Carlos Gonzalez of Frisco Texas has proved to be immovable and totally unhelpful and any hope of reconciliation from that direction has ended.
Paypal and E-bay (who I had great faith in) both proved to be toothless when it came to goods not as described, as it comes down to interpretation.
To cut a long story short I’ve decided the line of least risk is to keep the watch, and the £2500 I paid can be written off against “school of life “ training. If I returned it for a refund as the seller offered I might end up without the watch and the money?

There are a few issues with the watch, which hopefully you can help me with?

1) Although it came “with all papers” the instruction book is for a Navitimer, thus I don’t know how to adjust the calendar functions. I’ve looked on the internet but I can’t find anything. Can someone give me some tips or can I download or buy a manual from somewhere? FOUND SOMETHING IN HELP FORUM ON A MONTBRILLANT OLYMPUS AND HAD A GO AT CALENDAR SETTINGS, LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT BE OK??
2) The bezel is very tight and requires a fair amount of force to move it, very unlike the smooth operation of my fighters, is this indicative of something more serious?
3) The link pin on the pilots bracelet (the single pin with a screw at each end) has a sheared screw, are the pins available at my Breitling AD (or wherever)?
4) I’m not familiar with the auto-wind function of the Olympus movement but unlike my Fighters, when the watch is rotated or moved around (although the “weight” can be heard to move) there is no “run on” of the mechanism.

Sorry about the awful technical descriptions, but I’ve got a feeling that by the time this is sorted I’ll have learnt an awful lot about Breitling watches.
Feel free to put your views down as my initial disappointment could be clouding my judgment.
I think I’m beginning to develop a love of new Breitling watches, safely bought from AD’s.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Sorry your purchase didn't work out as well as you'd liked.

Hope this helps towards answering your questions.

1. http://www.breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1352&start=0

2. Can't help with that one. Probably needs an AD or BUK to answer it.

3. I would assume an AD can order one for you. You can but ask!

4. Different movements. The Olympus uses a B19 (ETA 2892) rather than the B13 (ETE7750) used by the Fighters. I assume this accounts for the difference in feel/noise.

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For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/fakes.html

Thanks for that, that's the post I found and I've set my Olympus up in line with those instructions.
It looks OK so far.

the bezel is supposed to be tight.

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SHARKMAN

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For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/fakes.html

Correct, but to be 100% correct we need to go one more step.

The 13 only winds in one direction so the 'run on' that the OP describes is actually the rotor moving in the non winding (anti-clockwise) direction where there is less resistance - effectively it's 'free wheeling'.

The 19 winds in both directions so never has that free movement of the rotor.

Something else new learned today. Thanks Roff!

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SHARKMAN

I have exactly the same watch, firstly, sorry to hear it wasn't a painless experience, but if it helps, I'd be happy to scan my instruction manual and email you the pages? Drop me a PM with your email as it's safer than posting your email in a thread and I'd be happy to oblige.

Stef

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Gent's, many thanks for your valuable input(Roff especially, such impressive knowledge! ).
I'm beginning to calm down, thanks largely to yourselves, and having worn my Olympus for a couple of days am warming to it, it's such a beautiful piece of work.
I may be judging it's condition to harshly and I may have it wrong about the polished finish etc. I'll have a go at taking some decent photo's tomorrow and would appreciate any comments you have regarding this. Maybe I'm only one service away from a decent watch?
However, that service will have to wait until funds are available.
Thanks once again.

Here are some photo's of my Olympus as promised, The manual is courtesy of Stefan, many thanks for that. I think it must have had a new crystal at some stage as it seems perfect, but whether it was a Breitling service is not clear to me (although I’d guess not) as the seller did not respond to my questions.
I gather Olympus’s had a bright polished finish, unlike the satin brushed finish on my Fighters. Initially this was a shock when I opened the box as I thought it should have been satin (I’d not seen an Olympus with a pilot bracelet up close). It looks to me as if it’s been polished a few times in its life, but I’m no expert
I’d welcome anyone’s opinion and any do’s and don’ts.
Was I daft in going for this at £2500 or is that a fair price? (although that’s largely and academic question as it’s part of the family now, and is here to stay).
Have I been over critical?
I’d like to have it serviced some time in the future, what age limit do Breitling put on watches for servicing?
Thanks once again for all your help and support.

It doesn't look awful to me, I think that a factory service will do wonders - Breitling's full service will include a professional polish and you will be amazed how good it looks. If there has been a non Breitling service in the past there may be some additional costs associared with restoring to Breitling standards, but they will quote you on what's needed.

All service centres will handle any watch from 1984 onwards with the exception of any unavailable quartz movements, so no worries about it being too old for servicing.

Yes I agree with Roff, as a fellow owner it looks fine to me.

I can understand your initial concerns though if you thought it would have been the same finish as the fighters.

The other thing it appears to be missing is the pushpin setter, shown in my photo below. If you drop a polite email to Breitling UK I'm sure they'll sort you out.

I must sort myself out with a bracelet at some point, mine was purchased with an ageing croc strap and no outer box (but all papers) and was in a grubby condition when I received it. However a quick gentle clean, a new croco strap and it looked great. I think the price you paid was fair for that model, mine cost me a total of £1,700 including a new strap and new box, but I think I was very lucky!

I will pop it in for a full overhaul and new crystal at some point, it is however keeping pretty good time so I'm not in a desperate rush.

Enjoy it, it's a beautiful watch and without a doubt my most favourite of all the Breitling range. I keep mine on a watch winder when it's not being worn to make full use of the semi-perpetual calendar, it can be a pain to set one up if it stops every few days!



Stef

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Thanks Stefan
I'll drop them an e-mail as you suggest. I can also get some info on whether they hane a bracelet link.
Is this the correct e-mail address? ENQUIRIES@BREITLING-UK.COM
Lastly, which winder have you plumped for?
I've got loads of info from the winder query I posted in this forum but I'm on a budget of £150 at the moment.
It looks as though I'll either get a chepo, which may last a couple of years or have to leave it until I can afford better?

That's the correct address.

I have a six watch winder which I bought from OfficialTime, it's a Van Gogh series, may be slightly above your budget though.

You should be able to get a decent single winder though, but avoid Rapport winders.

Stef

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