The Breitling Watch Source Forums

OK...so here's the story. I am getting married in two weeks and my fiance has always wanted a lovely watch. My beloved father was a private pilot who tragically died from cancer in October last year and left his Breitling watch to me. My fiance has just started to fly so I thought this would be the perfect wedding gift... However the more I have looked into it, the more I am worried I have a fake! I know you must see this ALL the time - but I really don't want to give my husband-to-be a fake on his wedding day and was wondering if anyone could help.... My Mum got the watch serviced with UK Breitling and we have all the paperwork, but the strange thing is that the watch face doesn't have a Breitling signature on it and the almost identical one I've seen on the net, does. Were there any made that would have NOT had this on?? The hands are also slightly different... These are the ONLY discrepancies - everything else matches up with this description I've found on my internet search (other than the strap which I am sure has been replaced):

"early 1970s vintage BREITLING GENEVE NAVITIMER CHRONO-MATIC Model 8806 automatic 2-register SS chronograph with date. The 8806 model was the last Chronomat pilots watch made between 1942 to 1978. All original white hands, white second hand flyback, large No. 12 arabic numeral with baton markers, 2 large engine turned silver/white sub-registers ( 30 min - 12 hr), outer silver/white rotating logo-rhythmic scale, coin edged bezel calibrated for 100 units, date window with signed T Swiss Made T at 6 o'clock. Stunning chronomat pilots dial from the swiss House of Breitling. Smooth running signed Breitling Geneve gilt finished cal 12 lever automatic seventeen 17-jewels unadjusted movement keeps excellent time with calendar and chronograph functions working. Quad-signed (dial,signed crown,movement,case back) the 8806 model comes with the oversized 41mm (not including signed left hand crown) all stainless steel case which has never been polished with sharp edged lugs in excellent condition. All stainless steel case back signed inside Breitling Watch LTD Swiss and the outside signed Stainless Steel Automatic - B Breitling - ser No. 1421322 Model 8806."
http://moonwatchtimepieces.com/Site/wat ... m=1&back=1

My serial number is 1424736. I have a photo of my watch but am unsure how to upload it on here - let me know if you need me to do this. ANY help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Thank you so much! Nikki.

Nikki,

a picture would really help. smaller pictures up to 250k can be easily uploaded:

just below the window where you enter the text you see a "browse" button, select the file from your hard drive, then click the "add the file" next to it.
give this a try, if the picture is too big you might have to reduce it in size or go through photobucket (help when needed)

the serial no. is in line with this models´production years, late 1973


actually I have not seen fake 8806s, too complicated to reproduce, is there no inscript at all on the dial, or do you see a winged logo with very small "AOPA" on it, like this ?

Thank you for that quick reply! I have resized an iphone photo of the face - I WISH I could see a winged logo with AOPA next to, but alas no
The date would be about right - when I was just a twinkle in my Daddy's eye and he was flying fixed wings over Zambia....so fingers crossed!!
Can't wait to see what you think....

Nikki, that is an Ollech & Wajs Aviation you have there. Back in the 70's (I think) Breitling got into serious financial problems and sold off a whole lot of part-finished watches and parts to O&W. O&W then used the parts (all original Breitling parts incidentally) to create a range of watches that they called the Aviation range.

So while it's not technically a Breitling as it wasn't made by Breitling, the parts all are Breitling. The O&W Aviations are an interesting oddity of Breitling's history.

I'm no vintage expert so I'm sure others will have more info, but that's definitely what you have there. Nice piece BTW.

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator

If the watch was serviced by Breitling, I can't imagine it's fake.

LL

Nikki, thanks for the pic, this answers all questions.

You might know that Breitling was closed down in 1975, they did not go bankrupt, but ceased production.

They sold the brand name to the "new Breitling" established by Ernest Schneider, but sold the component stock primarily to two companies, Sinn and Ollech&Wajs.

Your "Breitling" is such a piece, manufactured by O&W, who were not allowed to use the "Breitling" brand on otherwise quite authentic 8806s, but branded them "Aviaton".

Am surprised that BUK did not tell you, you can read more about this story at this site: http://www.navitimer.net, tab "O&W -Sinn".

nice, authentic and a beautiful wedding present !

Oh wow. That's fascinating! And thank you SO much for the info - never thought I'd find out so much and so am so grateful! I love historical snippets like that, and to be honest so will my fiance. The financial worth of the watch is irrelevant - the fact that it was my Dad's means more than anything, but now that I know it is still a well-made watch I can give it confidently to Rich without worrying too much! I am now trying to source a new Breitling bracelet and crystal face for it as the ones Mum had replaced for Dad a few years ago were pretty nasty-looking! Thank you so much once again

The original Breitling company owned by the Breitling family ceased production in December 1978 and laid off the staff.

Before he died in May 1979, Willy Breitling sold the name of "Breitling" and registered trademarks to Ernest Schneider, who then started using the name on his watches made at the Sicura factory in Grenchen.

Willy's heirs liquidated the company and divided the existing inventory of finished watches between them (one half was bought by Ron Geweniger in the late 1990s, but that's another story).

Albert Wajs and Helmut Sinn bought a lot of the remaining parts. There are no records of who got what.

It is not possible to know how much original Breitling content is in a watch made and sold by O&W or Sinn. We can ask them, but there are probably some original Breitling parts in an Aviation or Sinn chronograph, but it is also possible that there are few original Breitling parts. You can compare and easily see differences. When marketed in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no mention of the original Breitling content, only the striking similarities.

I consider them Breitling look-a-likes and I'm uncertain of the origin of parts.