Hey everyone,
First off, I just wanted to thank everybody on this forum. This place is by far the most comprehensive place to get info on Breitling watches. I’ve really learned a lot from everyone on this site over the past few months and I'm extremely appreciative of that.
I wanted to share how I got my first Breitling (if you don’t wanna read as it’s kinda long, there are pictures down further so skip ahead
). A bit of background....I’ve always been into watches and have been wearing one constantly since kindergarten. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been introduced to nicer and more high-end brands which then got me into the current realm of the watch world. I have quite a few watches in the $500 - $1K range and a couple in the $1K - $2K range, but until a couple months ago I never ventured any higher than that.
So, now onto the story of my first Breitling…… My wife wanted to buy me a watch to commemorate our wedding this past October. We were extremely busy leading up to the big day so this spilled over into a post-wedding present. Since she knows I’m picky and after she spent lots of time looking, researching and trying to figure out what she thought I would like best, she finally just asked me if I had a grail watch in mind and involved me in the process. I'm picky so that was def a good idea
She was hoping to keep the purchase in the mid 3K range. Up to that point, the most expensive watch I had was probably about $2K so although I had an appreciation for more high-end watches and had some general knowledge of them, I didn’t really ever take much time looking at them for fear of starting this addiction which I, and many of you, now have haha. She brought me to a jeweler in NJ in November that she had been working with and showed me a couple of her favorites, with her favorite being the Brushed Blackbird Blackeye Blue on a pilots bracelet (which is clearly over the budget she had in mind). After seeing it and trying it on, I loved it immediately. Nothing else compared to it in my eyes and to her, nothing else seemed worth the money. She decided that since it was a one-time event, the initial price range quickly went out the window. I spent a lot of time after that day researching and looking at many other watches to see if there was anything else I liked better in a similar price range. I wanted to be 100% sure before she spent that kind of money on a watch for me. I wanted it to be something I will always want to wear and remind me of my wedding day. After a few weeks of researching and trying on hundreds of watches (now in mid-December) I decided I definitely wanted the blackbird. So I told my wife that was the one and the next day she regretfully informed me that she called the AD and they had sold it and she couldn’t find another since it was discontinued. This sent me on a frenzied search of going through the website and calling AD’s trying to track one down. After calling maybe 50+ AD’s with no success, I gave up.
So January rolled around and we moved to the NYC area and the first night we spent in our new place, she gave me a piece of paper with a scavenger hunt on it. Much to my surprise, the search ended with a brand new blackbird hidden in a kitchen cabinet. Apparently the second I told her that was the one, she called and purchased the watch, but she held onto it because she didn’t want it to feel like a b-day or Christmas present (b-day is in Dec. also). I was shocked and thrilled as I had no success in tracking one down and knowing I couldn’t get one made me want it even more. And to make me even happier, she got 25% off the list price and no sales tax so a phenomenal deal to top it off!! And now onto a couple pics of the Blackbird (1st ever attempt at photographing a watch and some are with a cell phone so my apologies if these suck)……
Which now leads me to this week and the addiction part. While checking out many other watches when deciding the BB was my favorite, I saw a lot of other watches that I really loved, but weren't "the one." I’ve had my eye on a few of those watches and been scouring the used watch listings and the bay to see if I could get some good deals and at the same time saving up in case I decided to go new. And after three months of watching and visiting dealers, this week I ended up adding a B4B GT Racing Silver Dial, a Montbrillant Datora Havana dial, and a Baume et Mercier Capeland (all used). So after looking for 3 months, all 3 of these watches hit my target range in one week and now all of the sudden my blackbird has many new friends
All 3 are barely used (marks in the pics are just fingerprints) and still under manufacturer’s warranty. Now I need to just pick up a couple of crocs to compliment the gt racing and the datora and I'm good to go…….until my next watch binge which hopefully won’t be for a long while….except maybe that Omega Planet Ocean Chrono….. haha. Thanks again everyone!!!
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