The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Conceptually that makes sense, but if it is then there are some replacement parts. I need to get Bestfit out and go through in more detail, but it's not identical to any 42 that I have ever seen.

Sorry, but who/what is "Bestfit"?

Thanks!

I think we are puzzling about the movement on the one that's posted on eBay. It looks to me to be an Eberhard 14000, but I'm not sure that came with a date version. Typically, the first number on the back is the movement caliber number, but I don't think there is a caliber 275 from anyone.

From the sales paperwork posted in an eBay auction by 1Tuna, which I think was a watch once owned by Rene, these were sold in the mid-1990s. I wish Neil had imaged the inside of the paperwork on the several Serie Limitees he is showing. I wonder why he says 177 movements where "discovered" when the paperwork says 279 watches were made.

Here's where I get randomly cynical. These watches are all over the map with movements and quality of workmanship. There were no unused movements passed on to Sicura AG/Breitling AG. No one has revealed where these movements were scrounged. The cases are solid gold and I think we see them in other "productions" marked in weird ways. I think the workmanship is pretty spotty from viewing the images.

I've never handled one and I'd be curious to hear from Rene if he owned one and had a chance to evaluate it over a period of time. To my thinking, they are not very collectable, but I strive to be the number one weirdo.

thought about Eberhard, but this too has no date, definitely not a Landeron 42 (tricompax and this is not) or 52, or a massively modded one, crown wheel and date at 6 is quite the puzzler.

I had one for just over a year and wore it regularly. When I was in Singapore I wanted to buy a new strap from Sincere watches on Orchard road and the sales lady pointed me to the Singapore Breitling service center which was 5 minutes away , also on Orchard road.

I went to the service center, bought a new strap and they validated the watch as real as well.
Now I did have no reason to doubt the watch I had as the workmanship was on par with what I expected , the movement was clean, crisp winding , it was spot on time . From what I can see it looks exactly the same as other watches from this series , same crown, hands, dial etc

The one questionable marking I found was the not so deep engraving on the back , the hallmarks are all OK but the "Breitling serie limitee' is not deep.

These seem to be offered quite (surprisingly ?) regularly so I dont know how many were made, my guess approx 250 pieces of the one I had and 40-50 pcs of the other models . Are they Collectable ? I dont know what other people collect but I can imagine some people would want one of each and as single pieces they are great to wear





http://forums.watchuseek.com/f15/help-i ... 22731.html

_________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

On this one no doubt it nests a Venus Cal.175 ... but how can be explained this milled and re-engraved chrono bridge? It looks clear that previous engraving was not the current "Breitling" or "Breitling Watch Corp" or " Breitling Premier" as we can find in the vintage Breitlings using V175. Breitling SA recycled V175 with something else engraved on the bridge . Finding neutral bridges in the early 90's would have been quite easy, I guess? Why this bloody job on a limited issue watch?
For the watchback engraving, it is very current in modern Breitling "serie speciale" editions that the engraving is not very deep. I have 5 or 6 of those modern Lings that would not accept many aftersales polishings without loosing their engravings!



Now I come back to the above point , Landeron 42 vs Eberhard 14000 ?
See that link : http://vintagewatch.heimat.eu/TomsWatch ... nts_2.html
It is not an Eberhard, and the bridge shape seems typical from Landeron - Landeron was very prolific and issued many versions, so not exactly a 13, neither a 42, but sure a Landeron and not an Eberhard.

Looks like an unfinished Eberhard 310-82 to me. Search for "Contodat."

thank you, Bill, your were clearly right; Eberhard it is. Which just confirms what I thought, these were most definitely NOT used in any documented Breitling model, so the "miracle find" is more than questionable.

Here's an observation

The seller has all real pictures , except the pic from the movement which is a scan from a book page , he just made a terribly costly mistake by copying the wrong page with the wrong movement instead of taking a real pic of the movement

_________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

Rene, would not know which other movements "lying hidden for decades, wrapped in oilcloth" would have the 3&9 chrono configuration with the date at 6, definitely none that were used in any documented Breitling watches I know; I seem to remember now that I had seen another Eberhard movement in such a "revival" piece, all movement markings that I see on those are definitely not period correct.

I do not doubt these LEs were manufactured by Schneider Breitling, but very much doubt the story that these movements come from original Breitling stock.

Thats a good point as at the same time ML released their first 'Masterpiece' series with the, I think, Venus 188 movement ('93-'94)

So here we have some limited editions from both ML and Breitling with NOS 175 & 188 venus movements (and landeron ?) that run from 40/50 to 250/275 pieces each. Thats approx a 1000 NOS movements from Venus alone

So the 'found in the Breitling factory' can be taken with a few grains of salt , how about 'during the late 80ies early 90ies a batch of NOS Venus movements were found in the ESA factory and were sold off to ML, Breitling (and others?)' maybe they even found some landeron's in the same warehouse ?

_________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

I can live with that, typical marketing bull imho. nice, wearable watches, of course, but no surprise none of us has one in his collection.

An observation or speculation? The image he uses has "Breitling" on the bridge.