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I thought I would post what I know about boxes, apologies that it's not much and if it's been posted before.

60's low end Boxes

I have seen advertised and purchased Top Time's in these boxes, they are black leather effect , with red felt inserts and have gold lettering on the inside and a gold Breitling "B" on the lid.







I have seen a Chronomat 808 advertised with this box but IMHO, this was a made up set and these boxes were not used for the high end boxes. I am sure they were used for a lot of different models - but one would make a nice accompaniment to a Top Time from the 60's. They do come up on eBay and when they do prices can vary a lot.

70's low End Boxes

This boxes would appear to be an updated version of the earlier black box. As you can see the one I have came with a Sprint. They are khaki with black writing.They don't appear to be as common as the earlier black boxes, so might have had a more limited use.



70's High End Boxes
I have seen these boxes advertised with Navitimers ( like this one) and with Chronomats ( with a Watch for the computer age tag line. Pretty ironic considering that slide rules were made redundant in industry around this time by the invention of electronic calculators. I have seen the box with two different cut out, a smaller one for manual wind watches and a larger one for Cal 11. I found this out when I enquired about a box in a window in a vintage watch shop in London and was pointed this fact out by the owner.



60's Chrono-matic Box

This is the box that came with a Chrono-matic I used to own. Small padded insides offering minimal protection.



40's box

Everyone knows these - but used by Breitling in the 40's ( I have not seen one with a 50's watch yet! They go for a lot of money on eBay, and dealers sell them separately now - which is a shame if an original set gets split up.



hopefully a worthy and accurate post.

Thanks
Graham

Nice post! Boxes evolve from low end to high end......when will high end come back is what every one is wondering! I still wonder if a box is a box and just sits in the drawer. But I have admitted that the high end boxes are sweet! What nice issues we have to deal with.....boxes. Styling. which luxury watch to buy.....we are all very lucky!

Attached are a couple of pictures of a box i got with a Chronomatic i bought a while back, not sure if it's correct for the watch or not.
So, any info from a knowlegable expert would be nice.

beautiful cal. 15, Jamie ! and a great, rather rare box, probably quite a bit earlier than the watch, but in no way "incorrect" - same as today, boxes are "mix and match", jewelers had the boxes stock and often just "grabbed" a box they had.

Nice box not often seen. The plastic boxes like this usually had a cardboard outer box also. I thought the plastic boxes like this started in the mid 1960's and were used up through the early 1970's. If that was the case it wouldn't be out of place with a Chronomatic. As with a lot of Breitling things during this timeframe there appears to be no rhyme or reason why what watch got what box. Could be based upon many factors like the market where they were sold, what the dealer or Breitling had on hand, etc. This Chronomatic is one of my favorite dial configurations. Totally unorthodox but sort of cool.

Thanks Fred, having a think and based on your comment that it's earlier i think it actualy came with this one. I assumed it was about right for a Chronomatic style watch, it has a very late 60's early 70's feel to it.
No outer sleeve I'm sad to say.
Would you think correct for a Chronomatic?

think these plastic boxes are early 60s - gut feeling only, do not have that funky "70s" look at all.

Never Seen a 1806 with an AOPA Logo, looks very nice!