The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi everyone, I'm new here and just wanted your expertise on buying an ex military Breitling to wear for work so I dont want to spend thousands £££££££ on it, just need it to be robust and it has to be Breitling.
Thanks in advance.

Not sure what you mean by ex Military. Do you mean one of the limited edition logo pieces with military unit insignia? If so then they are just regular models with a logo, nothing inherently different about the watch.

Hiya,

This is a litte unclear as to what you are after really.

If you want an ex military watch, go buy a nice colt or SO and lend it to a serviceman for a tour or two before he brings it back with battle scars....

Or..... if you just want insignia on the dial give Ricardo a call at Andrew Michaels, you'll see the link at the top of the page. They are the leaders in Military Insignia Breitlings. And are extremely well priced.

Your choice!

I even think they had some SAS models at one point. Best of the Best. (Well we British think they are)

D

There were some military models years ago based on the old colt. As I recall they were blacked and one model had a compass that you 'flipped' up the dial to reveal.

They went for silly money on the bay.

However if money is a concern over minty beauty I would follow what Dave said and buy a preloved workhorse.

_________________
Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

What about Navis with insignias on the case back? Those models from a few middle eastern AIr Forces.

_________________
Jim

"You have Control".

Thanks for the replies
I'm sorry I was a little vague
I didn't know if Breitling every made a watch specifically for the military like CWC etc
I work in military orientated job but it will get knocked about a bit and Breitlings I currently own are more dress watches
I didn't really want one of the air force ones either but an S.A.S one would be great

No specific military models that I can think of other than the original 243 MHz Emergency and that rarely comes up for private sale. As Alan M points out there were some military style Colts 20 years or so back, but even those were also available for public purchase.

Breitling did a winged dagger SAS Colt a while back and I think they did a Breitling Seawolf also a few years ago. You might contact Andrew Michaels and see if they can hook you up.

Personally I've always thought it would a bit lame having a regimental watch if I'd never served with the given unit. Imagine being sat at a bar, neighbour says "Hey, cool watch, you were in the SAS / 82nd Airborne / an F15 pilot?" "Um, no, I'm a librarian..." My feeling is that these commissioned pieces tend to hold their value less well than standard ones, presumably because most people think the same way.

Though of course this is a separate issue from that of broader models developed with military use in mind. Certainly Breitling used to say of the old Colt Quartz that it was (I quote from the Chronolog) 'Initially developed for the armed forces ... It has retained the essential characteristics from this military past" etc. They said similar of the old SuperOcean: "Superocean was developed in the 1950s to help professional and military divers, and particularly special units."

As a rule of thumb most of the military limited editions I've seen sell bring more than the standard watch, especially to collectors. If anyone actually got close enough to see it was a limited edition a simple "big fan" would suffice if an explanation is needed. At least they're more interesting than some of the lamer Breitling "limited" editions with just minor dial differences or red and yellow hands. Also I have trouble with a limited edition being a watch they made thousands of instead of one they did 50 of or less. I go for the rarer watch every time and I've had a few over the years. So, if anyone is giving any military limited editions away because they're not very desirable, I'm your man.

Any of the watches with stenciled Arabic numerals have that military feel to them.

. . .you will be interested to learn that the first CWC two-register chronos were made by the original Breitling company, when Ray Mellor started up his company. They have the Beitling serial number on the inside case back, but "CWC" on the bridge of Valjoux 7730 movement. They were otherwise Breitling ref. no. 2020.

Yes got to agree here; in my sport of cycling it is an unwritten rule that you should never wear a rainbow jersey if you have never actually won a world championship or the Tour de France leaders' yellow jersey unless you actually earned it by leading the race!