The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello, this is my first post on this forum.

I've just rediscovered this watch that I bought new in circa 1975 from Leslie Davies jewellers - a West London agent for Breitling at that time. I bought it after starting my first real job and still heady with the concept of disposable income! From memory it cost me about 2 months gross salary and my father thought I was mad.



I had the watch regularly serviced by the agent for about 10 years until I bought an Omega Seamaster and the Breitling eventually ended up in the bottom of my wife's jewellery box. I can't find the original Breitling box or any of the paperwork that came with watch and assume that these are now long gone.

The Top Time seems to still keep good time and looks none the worse for wear after a long period of inactivity. The timer function works fine and the buttons have a positive action. I have however noticed that the lower push button appears to be loose and can be unscrewed to reveal a small spring and a splined shaft for the reset actuation mechanism. Clearly I would like to secure this properly however it seems difficult to screw the button on far enough before the spline in the button head starts to mesh with those on the shaft exiting the watch body. In short it seems necessary to rotate the button at the same time as pushing downwards to mate the splines and these two actions seem incompatible. There must be a technique, apart from going to a watch maker, to resolve this. Any ideas please?

I've taken a couple of pictures to verify the model. The back of the case has a serial number together with the the numbers 810 - I assume that this refers to the movement. Is it possible to accurately date my watch from the serial number?





I'd welcome any feedback about this model - I'd like to get it in good order as I'm still dithering about whether to use it or sell it to an enthusiast, rather than put in storage again.

Thanks for any assistance with this.

The watch dates to 1968. The unusual thing is that I've never seen a ref 810 before that had 'Swiss' under the Breitling on the dial. Usually what's seen is 'Geneve'. If you've had it since new one would have to assume the dial is original. You need to take it to a watchmaker to get the push button seated correctly.

Never seen the Swiss either, but as Paul says there is no reason to believe that it's anything but original.

The watch definitely needs a watchmaker's attention - apart from anything else the oils will have broken down a long time ago and running it without servicing now may well cause damage to the movement.

I would love to have that in my collection, Its a beauty

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Many thanks for the feedback so far.

The face is definitely original as I've had the watch from new. The manufacturing date of 1968 is earlier than I'd thought, I can only assume that it was in the retailers stock for a some time. I recall that Breitling retailers were thin on the ground in those days so sales demand/volumes were probably low.

It would be interesting to find out why this particular one has 'Swiss' on the face. Perhaps the factory could help solve this mystery - do they have such information available to customers?

Ditto on the "Swiss" comment~!

V. 178 movement... caseback looks sharp... probably needs a thorough cleaning of movement, maybe a new glass, and the pusher fixed and you should be well on your way...

Very unique~ I like it~

First time I've seen that too~

You've got a fine piece there~ take good care of it~

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"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

There is very little surviving information - the Breitling of today is not the same company, the original Breitling went bankrupt at the end of the 70s and very little documentation is around today.

The movement has to come out of the case to properly screw the pusher shank into the cap - there is no other way. Needs to be serviced if its been over 10 years max. I can do all of that at a reasonable rate. Craig www.chronodeco.com

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S. Craig Bergsma

Very nice piece! Send it to Craig (Chronodeco). It will need new gaskets for the case, crown and pushers and a complete servicing since it has been a long time idle.

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