The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I posted about this before when I got the project
Now the project is in Craigs (more than) capable hands slowly progressing

This is how I got it



these are the parts I got from Lester



and this is Craig doing his magic








Craig had to use a lot of time and extra parts that were no longer with the movement , and sadly enough the post from the flag indicator is missing , so it wont fit the stem. Luckily enough I bought several other parts from Lester when I had the chance including flag indicators , So now I need to send Craig another one today so he can finish the movement , fit the dial etc



I'll posts more updates when I received them

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

Great project, Rene, and wonderful work as always, Craig !
Keep us posted about this one, am sure I will love the final result !

I m waiting news of this watch.
see on the bay:
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 461wt_1081

Nice Watch , I know there's a lot of interest in it

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

On the topic of all the nice pieces that none of us ever talk about


Great looking 2005 Dracha, can't wait to see it post Craig.

Yes

I used to have one not too long ago but it had to go to fund another purchase but I always regretted selling it as they're really great watches. So thats why I bought the project watch.
It has a heavily modified V7731 movement , any other Mfg might have called it a 'manufacture'
Also the size is stunning & massive , much larger than the Avi's and Navi's , It may even be as big as the later 7651 & 7652 but I will have to measure that to be sure

But this one will definately be a keeper with the great looking dial, NOS hands and totally serviced by Craig

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

That's part of why I love vintage... bringing a piece back to life... hope it works out well Dracha...

I bet Craig is having some good fun with this one... I would if I was a watchmaker...

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

Looks awesome Rene, congrats and great job Craig! Rene, can we have a wrist shot of this watch?

Probably not while it's in the US in pieces and awaiting other parts

Here's how it arrived back home yesterday from Oregon and I wanted to share

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

great piece, Rene, congrats !

Indeed, fantastic piece!

Congrats, Rene. Very cool piece and another great job by Craig.

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Dave

I thought I would post a few comments about this project. The Valjoux 7731 used in this watch was a modified Valjoux 7730 movement which originated as the Venus cal 188 movement (Valjoux bought out Venus and updated the 188). Now you would think that all of the parts from either the 188 (note that there are some 188 parts that will not work in the 7730 but these are obvious) and/or the 7730 would fit the 7731 no problem. But NO - THEY DO NOT. This is something that I run into all the time with older chronograph movements designed/built prior to around 1970. In fact, the machining accuracy of older Venus (cals 150, 152, 165, 175, 178) is right up there with something like a model T Ford! Swapped part frequently do not fit well - particularly the chrono bridge and pallet bridge. This is not true of older Valjoux movements like the cal. 23 and 72 and their variants. So what most likely happened was that Valjoux just used the Venus tooling to make the 7730 and 7731 movements until they came out with the 7733 which has no problems at all when it comes to swapping parts.
So my point is.... this made what should have been a fairly easy (or "fun" - noted in an earlier post) project not very easy at all and added hours to the project. That said, I was still glad to take on this project as it did turn out very nice in the end.

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S. Craig Bergsma

It's great to get your perspective on these Craig, and surprising that the tolerances were so broad on machined pieces, especially given the need for accuracy that is inherent to watch movements.