The Breitling Watch Source Forums

For instance. The super avenger, blackbird etc?

Is it mostly for the water resistance, feature?
I know these movements might not be the most top notch around, but I think it would be cool to see....

Can just a case be bought?

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End of Discussion.

For all but the deepest going dive watches there is no reason at all not to use display backs. When you think about it, a sapphire crystal DB is essentially exactly the same as a sapphire crystal dial-side crystal, so the water resistance argument holds no, er... water. In other words if they can make the sapphire front water resistant to, say 300m, then there's no reason why they can't make the back the same way. Just look at Omega - they regularly make 300m WR watches with DB's.

The only exception is very deep dive watches, but even then it's only for practical wearability reasons. The crystal on the Seawolf is around 5mm thick, so if you had a sapphire back of the same thickness, you are already taking up 10mm before you even start with the movement, the dial, the space for the hands, etc. You'd end up with a 20mm+ thick case in no time.

Breitling finish all their movements to a reasonable standard, so there's no real reason not to use more DB's, other than perhaps one of cost as it's no doubt slightly more costly to make a DB as opposed to a standard solid caseback. That said, in the grand scheme of things, the price difference must be negligible, so the simple answer is that I don't know why Breitling choose to limit their DB's so much.

EDIT : One last thought, maybe they limit them on standard models to make the few LE models that have them more justifiably different and therefore expensive.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Most models are Autos and therefore have large rotor weights that obscure the movement. Some brands do not worry about this and issue display backs, maybe Breitling are worried.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Breitling's policy on DBs has made no sense for a long time. It's only in the last 12 months or so that we have seen them on any contemporary models. Prior to that if you wanted a DB you had to either go back to the mid 90s or buy a Japanese market limited edition. The only exception, somewhat bizarrely, being a mecha-quartz movement.

Hopefully the last few months are the start of a shift although I can understand that they will hold off making DBs more widely available for a while given that they have just used it as one of the biggest differentiators on an LE that people have paid a premium for.

I've waffled on display backs. I've had some - a Chopard MM, Zenith Defy Elite, and UN Dual Time - that were so "meh" it made me wonder why they bothered at all. On the other hand the 7 Day and the Zeniths with El Primeros were a sight to behold.

But if Breitling will up price by $1,000 to use a display back, I'd rather have a regular case back. That essentially was my choice as I held an LE Navi 01 on strap and non-LE 01 on bracelet. The AD priced both with the bracelet. Surely some of the price difference was the LE status, but I've had LEs before and I don't attribute any inherent price bump to LEs, though the market and manufacturers do.

We know which one I chose from the signature below. (I recently learned one of our members just picked up that LE at the same AD!!! congrats ###.)

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SHARKMAN

Yeah I'm with ya. I wouldn't pay an extra $1k for it, but it would be cool....

I think the standard movements are really pretty boring to look at, so in theory, if Breitling were to want to display them, theyd have to up their game and make the movements more interesting to look at. That would mean more $$$ for us to pay.

I have a better question: Why do Rolex not have anything on their case backs?

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-RJ

Because it's COOL.

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SHARKMAN

In regards to rolex. Just something else rolex can "do" to try and convince us it's worth a Ton of money... I want a deep sea, sort of. But I can't justify the price of two super avengers because it's a "rolex".....

Maybe it's because it'd look silly to show off such a small eta movement on big Breitling watches. The 01 movement is bigger and fills out the case nicely so it's worth showing off.

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Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

You've just stated the former position of nearly every Rolex owning member on this site, including me.

Just don't fall asleep near any oversized plant pods.

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SHARKMAN

But a lot of companies will provide a nice DB with a steel rim. I agree that a full width sapphire caseback is a thing of beauty, but it's not uncommon to have fairly wide perimeters.

OK, but can't you just buy a clear caseback?

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End of Discussion.

You cam put a Rolls grill on a VW Bug but it looks silly.

Where do you source it? Remember you have to take not only size but threading and depth into account.

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SHARKMAN