The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello Everyone,

I'm interested in buying a Breitling Transocean Day/Date with Black Dial and mesh bracelet or black leather band.
I looked at the local ADs here in South FL and a few online sites like Authenticwathes.com and Jomashop.com.

1)What do you guys think of this watch for dress and weekend casual wear?
2)With such a large discount what are the pros and cons of the listed web sites?

Chill Will

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

Lots of threads on grey market dealers, basically the pricing is marginally better than you can get from an AD and you get no warranty at all so most would prefer using an AD. Further, some grey market dealers will take your money and then try to source the watch, just because it is on their site doesn't mean that it is in stock.

The watch is very nice, but here in the EU relatively expensive. (Compared both to other Breitling models and to other brands matching quality ETA-based day-date watches.) Just my two cents.

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Chronomat 41 BEB, Steelfish Chrono BEB, 2x Grand Premier, Chrono Cockpit 39 mm, Aerospace Avantage 79362
IWC 3706, 3705, 376706, 371928
Sinn 103 plexy
For sale: Sinn 356 II, Porsche Design Titan Chrono Valjoux
Wanted: Breitling Blackbird 13353 on bracelet

Thx for the welcome. I've followed and learned a lot from previous post in the past.

Chilli Will

As a dress watch I like it, a little large but that really depends on your wrist. I would take a long look at one if you can find one locally because it does seem to have a lot of "open space", even with a day-date, which is what you get with a 3-hander with that much dial. I enjoyed my Headwind, also a day-date, but I'm pretty sure the dial circumference was smaller, though the watch was actually larger.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless

I was considering this same watch myself. Not purchasing through an authorized dealer can save a few hundred dollars, but you don't get the warranty from Breitling. I ended up getting a transocean chronograph through my local AD for the peace of mind. 5 yr warranty and a hat to boot.


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I bought a pre-owned steel/silver with brown croco strap from a reputable NE bricks-and-mortar jeweler back in August. It came from an AD originally and is still under warranty until September 2015. I looked hard at buying one of these new for a while but couldn't justify the price. I was also reticent to buy a pre-owned watch, even with all the papers, but the price I thought was much more reasonable.

Without question, I get more compliments on this watch then any other I've ever owned, mostly from "non-watch" people I guess. I usually keep it on the winder unless I'm getting "dressed up" (which isn't often). I recently had to travel to a funeral & decided to wear it. My usual granularity for taking a watch off the winder is to wear it for one week, and I got ~a lot~ of comments on that watch that week.

To me it reminds me of a larger, updated version of the silver Elgin on TwistoFlex that was my father's dress watch in the 60's...classy in an understated way. The wide day display and the croco strap really make it for me. Now I just need to swap the strap for a croco deployment and I'll be all set!

I bought a Transocean Chrono last year. Very happy with it so far. The only thing I do not like about it is that the glass is not as clear as other Breitlings and reflects light a bit at certain angles. IMO – day/date looks even better as a dress watch.

My opinion on ADs is based entirely on my experience, and hopefully things are better in other countries.

Some years ago I bought a Colt Chrono from a local AD and after a few weeks the battery died. It turned out that to replace the battery under warranty the watch needs to be sent to Sydney, as this is apparently the only place in Australia capable of replacing Breitling batteries. The wait on the battery is several months!!! So a couple of years later I decided to replace the battery again. I called Breitling Australia and was told that the replacement will cost $400 + postage (expensive with insurance) and will still take 2-3 months!!! A local watchmaker, specialising in high end watches is now replacing my battery (and a seal) every 2 years for $90 in 30 min.

I was stupid enough to purchase the above Transocean from another AD, because it offered an extended 6 year warranty and free service for 6 years. I got him to write on the invoice that the service turnaround is no longer than 2 weeks. The dealer has since closed and I’m left with a useless warranty, for which I effectively paid over $1000.


The lessons here are:
1. AD will not replace batteries or service watches before the sale (as I incorrectly assumed they should, given that some watches may be easily 2 yrs old by the time they are sold)
2. Breitling warranty is of little practical use and is designed to discourage customers from making warranty claims.
3. Customer only matters until the sale is made, after that they do not want to know you.
4. There are 5 ADs in my city, but no authorised repairer, so ADs are really just marketing outlets, with no warranty responsibilities or justification for their higher prices.

I’ve purchased watches from reputable internet sites several times. It’s a calculated risk. Most popular Breitling models (especially ETA calibers) have been around for a long time and there is little likelihood of anything going wrong. In an event of a problem there are 3 options
a. Most websites offer some sort of warranty (but you’ll have to pay for postage)
b. Platinum Visa card gives an extended warranty which one can rely on ( it works like an insurance – you can use your own repairer)
c. Many problems can be fixed by local watchmakers for very little money, probably less that the cost of postage to an authorised repairer.

@Orater: can't imagine something like this happening in Belgium, even Europe. I'm an AD and Authorised Repairer for Breitling and replacing a batterie here will cost you 30 EUR and it takes one hour.

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I also have good experiences of the Watch De Luxe service in Budapest (authorized for a. o. Breitling).

_________________
Chronomat 41 BEB, Steelfish Chrono BEB, 2x Grand Premier, Chrono Cockpit 39 mm, Aerospace Avantage 79362
IWC 3706, 3705, 376706, 371928
Sinn 103 plexy
For sale: Sinn 356 II, Porsche Design Titan Chrono Valjoux
Wanted: Breitling Blackbird 13353 on bracelet

And I am yet to find s local watchmaker with access to Breitling parts. You pay a premium for a Breitling modified ETA movement, I don't see the point I. Having those parts replaced by generic ETA parts by a watchmaker (who will also reuse single use hands).