The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello bsource,

I recently purchased my first breitling from an AD... A beautiful Super Avenger black face with white subs on pro2. I have been meaning to create an account and provide a review with high reso photos but didn't get around to it.
I have been a breitling fan for many years and finally made the decision to buy one... So I did. As always, I continued to do research on breitlings and found more articles on this brand post purchase. It was last night when I started reading about Eta movements in breitlings, and I immediately became discouraged. Why? I found it upsetting that these generic eta movements can be found in many other brands, even non luxury. I knew for some time that Breitlings used these movements.. But I'm not an expert or anything... And I didn't really know what it meant. It changed my perception of the brand entirely. I am in No Way bashing the brand, in fact, I came here to get educated on the brand. Should I feel this way? I have had my eye on a navitimer world as my next purchase... Now I'm not so sure. I feel like I've been duped by their aviation marketing ploys and purchased a shiny case with a nice dial that bears a movement inside found in 1000s of other watches... I don't want to feel this way. It's giving me a headache!

Does breitling modify these movements to make them their own? Am I just some moron who shouldn't have made this post? I feel like I lost faith in the breitling religion!

Help!

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

ETA movements are the backbone of the Swiss watch industry and are perectly well regarded, they are also the reason that you didn't have to pay a lot more for the watch that you bought.

ETA make a number of grades of movement - 3 or 4 depending on the specific movement and Breitling always purchases the highest grade. They then automatically replace a number of pieces with their own - escapements for example. They also measure other pieces - wheels and arbors for example to tighter tolerances than ETA does and if the parts don't meet the Breitling standard then they too are replaced. After the movements are assembed and regulated they are then sent to the COSC for independent testing and when they pass they are issued the COSC certificate, a version of which accompanies the watch. That certification is recognised as the industry standard for the highest quality Swiss movements.

Incidentally, for a number of different reasons ETA is restricting the sales of their movements and therefore for several years Breitling have been producing a number of parts of those movements themselves.

It's a great movement, for less than in house, and if looked after it will last for hundreds of years.

It's still a great watch!! Don't regret the purchase, the movements are solid and will last a long time. As Roff said, there is a reason that watch you got didn't cost 9-10K and that is because it isn't an in-house movement. The quality of the ETA's in breitling is excellent and they are known to be reliable and consistent. Enjoy the watch!

I echo what has been said so far. In addition, ETA movements are far easier and cheaper to service which is definitly and advantage. Secondly because all Breitling watches are COSC certified, it doesnt matter whether its inhouse or ETA they will have a similar degree of accuracy and reliability.

The only difference is if your watch had a see through back or something in which case an ETA movement might appear to be less attractive but other than that dont worry. I own alot of inhouse movement watches but the ETAs are always more accurate lol

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Jaeger Lecoultre Master Eight Days Perpetual 40, Rolex Daytona 116520, Rolex Explorer I 114270 - Calibre 3130, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15300 - Calibre 3120, Zenith Striking 10th - Calibre 4052 B, ​Bremont MBII, Panerai 00390 SE.

The ETA-base in your watch is arguably one of the most reliable movements ever made. The ones in Breitlings are among the most accurate as well. Even though it is an ETA-base, by the time Breitling modifies these parts, they aren't really ETA movements anymore as they work they do to them is extensive.

You could liken the caliber upgrade to customizing a car engine.
The basics are there, but by tweaking & fine tuning it, you have
an enhanced & superior machine that rises above the masses.

Roff said it all.

Still a great movement, in a great watch. Sharing engines is done between luxury cars and general VW's as well, so don't worry too much. Wear it with pride

If you dont want an ETA, youll have to disregard many models from a ton of different brands. Breitling, Omega, Panerai, IWC, Ulysse Nardin, Cartier, Hublot etc.

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-RJ

To be strictly accurate Breitling don't modify parts, they modify the movement by replacing parts. The design is identical and parts are either supplied with the ebauche or provided by Breitling, supplied parts aren't retained and modified.

In-house is overrated IMO. I bought a Patek Nautilus and gave it to my dad after selling one of my Rolex Daytonas. The in-house thing is nice to know that you have in your watch, but in reality, I found that I liked my Breitling Crosswind Special over any of those watches...it was just the right size, I loved the look, and it had a date feature and chrono pushers that didn't require me to unscrew each time I had to use the chrono.

In the end, you don't sit there and stare at the in-house movement, but you do the watch and dial each day several times a day. As long as the ETA movement is rock solid reliable...which it is, why even worry? I'm personally not even enticed to get the new B01 Chronomat because I like the styling on my CWS so much more. Don't get caught up in the in house bragging rights game. It ain't all that.

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18k Rolex Datejust / Breitling Crosswind Special / Patek SS Nautilus / Bvlgari Diagono Chrono / Bvlgari Scuba / Omega Speedmaster Professional / 60s Omega Constellation

Interesting. I never knew the specifics. So it is the top grade ETA with a combo of certain ETA and certain Breitling parts?...if so, when people use the term "base movement" or "blank", I'm guessing that means it is actually lacking certain parts that the buyer supplies (in this case, Breitling)?

yeah, in house is nice, but basically gonna cost you close $8-10k minimum across the board.

even though its an eta its still COSC certified which is pretty huge...

I do

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Honestly, it's nice that you enjoy looking at your B01 movement, but IMO, Breitling didn't embellish their ETA based movement (the B13 in the OP's Superavenger any less than the B01)...it looks good too..

http://www.breitlingsource.com/details/B13.html

My point was that one looks at the watch case/dial a lot more during the day than the movement...not to mention what others will see...only the watch on your wrist (not many are gonna look at the underside of your watch during the course of the day). If he likes the Superavenger styling over the Chronomat, Navi or transocean with the B01, he shouldn't be upset about buying what he did cause it's still a cool arse watch.

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18k Rolex Datejust / Breitling Crosswind Special / Patek SS Nautilus / Bvlgari Diagono Chrono / Bvlgari Scuba / Omega Speedmaster Professional / 60s Omega Constellation

Base movement means the underlying design - the ETA caliber. A blank, or more properly an ebauche is a movement kit that technically is missing the escapement, balance spring, mainspring and mainspring barrel. However, ebauche is also used as a term for a full movement kit which is more correctly known as a chablon. Many watch companies will simply buy chablons (or more commonly fully assembled movements), Breitling don't make it clear if they purchase ebauches or chablons, I'm guessing that it's ebauches as they automatically replace the escapement, but they don't necessarily use all of the parts supplied in the ebauche.