The Breitling Watch Source Forums

managed to get this beauty in a trade.
Remarkable is the date disc, its the same colour as the subdials.
I contacted Breitling Germany with some details but never got a reply

Any idea what the value is of this one and which year?
Unfortunately I only have the box, no papers.

Model no: 81.950 serial no: 38861

Maybe one of the Breitling purists around can help me out.

Thanks for any input.

Here some pics.

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"Respect2All"

Impossible to put an exact year on it because serial numbers are random with 'new' Breitling, but it's from the mid to late 80s.

they made that watch all the way up to 94 like that.

Not with the 81950 model number that the OP provides. In 1990 the model number changed to 13047.

if you say so

Thanks for the input guys, I was hoping the serial number was enough to
make out the year of this Chronomat.

The guy who I got it from thought it was '86 or '87.

By your answers he could have been right about it.

Can anyone roughly estimate a value?

And is the date disc in the same colour as the subdials considered a rarity?

This post was moved from the vintage section, can anyone tell me when a Breitling is
considered to be a vintage?

Thanks guys.

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"Respect2All"

I think that all of this colour combo had that colour date wheel. Generally vintage is from the original Breitling company before it was liquidated and the current ownership bought the name, so 1978 or earlier.

General advice on pricing is in the FAQs, #2 here - http://www.breitlingsource.com/articles_faq.shtml#8. You'll find a reasonable number of comparables, especially on Chrono24.

If you go to the 1985 Catalog in the "Chronologs and Books" section of this website, you'll see this version of the Chonomat on the cover and on "page 6" (catalog page 7). Since your watch has "1884" under "Breitling" on the dial, it must be a few years newer.

It just screams "Sicura" from the caseback to the rider tabs.

Sorry, being Dutch I don't get the expression "Sicura", can you help me understand this please?

Thanks.

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"Respect2All"

Sicura was a crappy brand from the 60's. It was owned by the guy who bought (?) Breitling in the 70's or 80's (or whenever that was). Some of the older Breitlings and Sicuras have a similar look.

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-RJ

I'm not sure if I'm happy with that, but thanks for the info.
I'll do some web searching to get a feel of what you mean.

Thanks

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"Respect2All"

Sicura was the vehicle that made Ernest Schneider his money, and it was the company that financed the purchase of the Breitling name in 1978. Schneider killed off Sicura so that the focus could be on Breitling and the first Breitlings (other than a few limited series reissues of vintage pieces) under Schneider appeared in 1984 starting with this Chronomat model.

My apologies for being cryptic in my previous note. When Schneider bought the Breitling name in 1979, it was after the Breitling factory in La Chaux de Fonds had closed. He started using the Breitling name on watches made at the Sicura factory in Grenchen. Sicura AG changed its name to Breitling AG in 1993.

The Breitlings were immediately a better quality than the Sicura watches made in Grenchen. In particular, the cases were solid steel instead of the chrome-plated ones used in Sicura watches. The model you have does have the "Sicura" rounded caseback, which requires a shallow wrench to turn the caseback. Those rider tabs and other features were a Grenchen innovation. For the life of me, I can't understand their value. I may be the only one.

no, Bill, you are not. and, for the life of me, neither did I ever understand why this should be a "Chronomat" ?

Chrono = chronograph, mat = automatic?