The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi Guys

I wonder if you can help me please?

I've recently purchased a Super Avenger, it is pre-owned but I spoke extensively with the seller before purchasing and was confident of the watches authenticity. I have all the documentation including the original purchase receipt from Breitling in East 57th Street in New York.

The watch was as described and I'm incredibly pleased with it however there is one small issue. There appears to be a staining on the crystal? .. its difficult to describe so I've taken a couple of pictures, its only visible in certain lights and I'm just wondering if I could get your input on what it might be? You can see the stain just over the 2 o'clock position then on the 3 o'clock down to the 5:30 ish area ? .. also a slight stain on the 7 o'clock area too.

I have 14 days to return the watch if I choose to do so.

Anyway here are the pics .. It would be great to hear your thoughts and I appreciate any help you guys can give me.

Many thanks

Stephen

No pics, but have you tried cleaning it? Could just be a water stain.

Hi

Yes I've tried cleaning it ... doesn't seem to want to go !!

hopefully pic attached now!

s

Looks to me like someone tried polishing the chimney around the crystal, and ended up scratching the glass? Or removing AR? Not really sure.


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It's not scratched sapphire, you would need diamonds to scratch like that. It's likely the outer AR that has been removed and that's not something that Breitling will fix. While technically it's possible it's not economically viable so Breitling's solution would be to replace the crystal.

This doesn't sound great. I'm assuming the crystal is fairly costly to replace ?

Do you guys think I should return the piece?

It's the outer anti-reflective coating that they polished off by mistake when trying to polish the watch. You can remove all the rest of the AR coating by polishing it off so that you won't see the blemishes, or opt to just return it.

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

HI Stephen,

That depends on your circumstances. If the watch was from a fairly exhaustive search (for just the right one), then would you be able to replace it with one similar now, or would that take time? Do you need this particular watch, or is there no issue if it went back? Does the seller know that there is a stain on the crystal and was he aware of it before you bought? Would he discount some of the cost back to you so you can get Breitling to fix it? Seems reasonable.

Its a nice watch, and I guess if it were me, I might consider this other options first before sending it back. The seller probably does not want it back away and may agree to knock some of your buy price to help you. That would be interesting. Look at your buy price and compare to others out there. You have great provenance, which although not rare, is good all the same and worth something.

If I were sending it onto Breitling for a replacement crystal, I would also investigate resetting the date change over. If the pic you provided is correct, you are changing date before midnight. No issue really, but I prefer the date to change over after midnight. But that's me.

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Jim

"You have Control".

Probably not as expensive as you'd perhaps think.

My Aerospace Avantage had the AR coating removed by the previous owner as he had managed to mark it. Having no AR on my 'work watch' annoyed the hell out of me, even though I put up with it for 12 months. I took it in for a battery replacement to my local AD who is a Breitling Approved Service Centre and they replaced the crystal for me at cost, and it came to just about £100 UK pounds sterling, which for a £3.5k watch seemed pretty good value and I now feel much better about my watch.

I assume a SA crystal will probably be more costly than an Aerospace crystal, but probably not by much.

I'm not convinced the AR coating is that durable and take great care now with my watches not to scratch or knock the crystal.

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Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace