The Breitling Watch Source Forums

This "watchmaker" has worked on a lot of FAKES!

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S. Craig Bergsma

Hi there. I am new to the forum but have been collecting vintage watches for many years. I have owned a few and handled other gold Breitlings that I am sure were the real thing, all with double case backs. I have spoken to some watch friends/makers and they are of the same opinion.

To my knowledge, the early records of what Breitling produced are thin on the ground so it is hard to say they did not produce double case backs. Breitling were buying in cases and movements and assembling themselves so there would have been lots of combinations. Also, post the war gold was at a premium and there were very high taxes on luxury items. This makes it unlikely that only solid gold backs were available.

Great discussion. I am keen to understand (as an owner) why everyone is so adamant that these are fakes? Any more thoughts?

Post a picture of one that you believe is real and let's see what the consensus is.

Well lets see if anyone can come up with a double back that has the correct reference number and serial number. Waiting......

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S. Craig Bergsma

. . . I think he must have understood the question was how many solid-gold Breitling watches versus gold-plated cases. I think 200 to 1 might be a reasonable estimate for that.

I think Roff is right. There is no record of Breitling making watches in a "Chronographe Suisse" case. That was never their market and I've never seen one that didn't have one or more "tells" revealing the forgery. Thanks to the 1946 catalog, this is a pretty well documented era for Breitling.

Well I've spent some time again this evening looking through reference material, searching the web, looking at different threads here, etc and I cannot find a single 18k Breitling with a double caseback. I can find plenty that are claiming to be Breitlings, but not one that holds up to scrutiny - the vast majority failing a simple reference number / serial number test. I'm happy to be proved wrong, but it's going to take someone providing pictures of an 18k piece with a double caseback that we can't find anything worng with, otherwise I just won't believe it.

Saw this on the bay guys. Is it wrong?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-1940s-BRE ... 843wt_1115

Never seen a Premier movement with a chronomat case and dial... but can't say for sure... Roff or Paul will come along very soon...

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

Thank you. It looked OK to me but I wasn't sure about the Premier.

That would be my immediate concern too, but it is gold so can't rule it out completely. For the purposes of this discussion the case / caseback is correct and of course it's another example of a solid gold case only having a single caseback.

And besides curiosity as to authenticity that's precisely why I posted it in this thread. I thought, if legitimate, it provided supporting evidence, since the serial number dates it to post WWII of 1946, to the thought that only single casebacks were used during this period.

Oddly enough I have seen Breitling Premier stamped on the chrono bridges of at least 3 legit 1st generation Venus cal 175 Chronomats. Strange but true. Craig

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S. Craig Bergsma

That wouldn't surprise me hugely if they were gold cased. If they were SS I would be more surprised.

Here's an example of a fairly obviously wrong one that has the double casebacks. I can't believe the price that this seems to be going to:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/VINTAGE-BREITLING-18 ... 1c189a850f

That has to be one of the poorest efforts at a dial script I've seen , so far.