The Breitling Watch Source Forums

And please notice that the engravings are not the same, they are all different from each other (so we have all reasons to believe that they was not made at the same time) and on a watch that already is questionable, that shines a red light for me, and from a collectible point of view I wouldn’t touch it.

/ Kurt B

Yes it does, and they suffer tremendously from that from a collectible point of view (and valuable of course), collectors wants their watches to be according to the book.

And remember the dial on the watch in mention, if I’m right that the paint is luminova then there’s no doubt whatsoever IMO, that it’s wrong (not to mention the wrong subdial hands).

Here we have a collectible watch with multiply very likely issues, who wants to pay top $ for that ? ? ?

/ Kurt B

This one says "stainless steel back", so there's no doubt that the case should say (and originally was on a) goldplated watch.

/ Kurt B

Kurt, so you would assume all 806-E are incorrect ? Do you have an example of an 806 with the Valjoux 7736 that you consider correct, as I wrote, all that I have seen look as if the "-36" had been added to a completed case, font and spacing are clearly different from the other stampings ?

I'm not assuming anything, I'm just referring to my source and to the one I have in my hand.

I know very little about them as I only see the 806 Venus 178 ones as "the real deal", but I have all reasons to believe my source, and the one I have here (it's a friends) is definitely different from a "normal" 806.

/ Kurt B

Hi all,

On my personal 806-E SN13429xx, it is clear that the -E has been engraved separately from the 806, it is engraved deeper with different font. The thickness of the case - btw bezel and back - is 4.20mm .
As told in my first posts here, I have got it as a wreck with an uncommon all black dial , and was enough lucky to buy a used but close to new dial from Mr Albert Wajs, well known for his Aviation watches built with spares from L. Breitling factory.
This all black dial was probably issued from a small batch , in 10 years I only saw 1 Navi on ebay with a similar dial , and A. Wajs told me that he had only kept 1 probably forgotten as he had all his Breitling dials erased and re-printed as Aviation.

I have compared my 806-E with my Aviation 34017 with 7736 inside , issued at the beginning of Aviation series - btw 1980 and 1983 according to Wajs : the case is thicker - 5,2mm - the bezel and dial are strictly similar to my 806-E parts.

I had been told by a Lip ex- subcontractor that some 806-36 and 806-E would have been assembled by Lip , maybe somebody has more info about that?

Wow! I didn't mean to put the cat amongst the pigeons but thanks for all the background info.

Kurt, It was your articles that I read that I got the serial numbers from and checked the back was from 1967 before going to look at the watch. I also read about the 809-36's starting in 1967 and we both appear to have got that wrong but never mind.

I have not had the back off the watch so have only assumed it had the Valjoux movement from the model number, I have not verified this.

With regard to the hands (and it's obvious I'm no expert) they are very faintly luminous, I would say about 1/10th as bright as my B1.

If I can help with any more information I'd be only too happy to. I work with classic cars and am used to finding old things that have been reassembled with parts from different models, and I know how that can affect the value so I'm not unduly surprised. At the end of the day I have the watch I want and I'm not planning on selling it anytime soon.

Thanks again.

Approx for how long does the lume stay lighted? From what I have read, with vintage tritium there should be no lume lighting up or in some cases if there is, it should be very faint and disappear quickly. Also the tritium on my 73-74 Rolex 1680 no longer lights up.
Kurt, could you try that test on some from 66-67 or 69 if haven't already? I say that because vintage tritium Rolex GMT's from 1966 are still known to glow possibly due to a different mix of tritium used or maybe a greater quantity used to those from other years so would be great to know what happens on the 65-70 vintage Breitlings when exposed to a light source and viewed in the dark.Also the ones that have T<25 on the dial usually from the 70's on will definetely no longer light up because they used safer quantities of tritium lume in them to prevent health hazards..

Cheers Kurt, wouldn't have caught that one:)

Btw what's the normal thickness of the bezel and back? By Kurts account there should be a 1mm difference on the 806-E ones. Does the Aviation one have a similar thickness to a normal 806? I don't have a proper measure else would have mesaured my 806 for comparison sake.