The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi, first post and proud first-time owner of a shiny new Breitling Avenger II - I love it so no haters please!

When I collected the watch last week, the shop manager ran me through the basic functions and mentioned that this was a limited edition as it was marked 142/500 on the back plate.

I'm not the kind of person that gets easily excited by the words "limited edition" but I would like to know what this might indicate in this case?

I assume all watches are produced in batches/runs, is this just an indication of this? Can any one help with this please?

Well if it says xx/500 on the back it is a limited edition of 500. Most models are 'normal' but sometimes dealers / organizations or Breitling themselves commission runs of a certain number of pieces with some variation. Post a picture of dial and caseback and we'll try and tell you what version yours is.

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

Thank you for the friendly welcome.

I did forget to mention that it says Japan edition limitee on the rear, as you'll see. I'm interested to know what the variants might be.

AIUI if it's a BREITLING Limited Edition then it will have a Breitling certificate with it too quoting the LE number that should tally with the caseback. That's certainly the case with my SAII Mil.

Not sure about 'limited' dials that AD's such as Andrew Michaels commission and sell as I've never had one, but I think they have a more limited appeal unless the dial means something to you such as a military/air force unit or aircraft type etc. I always fancied one of the Vulcan dials but my preference generally is the plain vanilla OEM dials.

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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

Obviously commissioned by Breitling Japan if that's what it says.

Hmmm... Does that mean that this beautiful piece of Swiss craftsmanship I have purchased is actually built in the same place as my ghastly mobile digital mobile phone? That's a bit sh@t isn't it?

No. It was produced in Switzerland and supplied to the Japanese distributor. All Breitlings are produced in Switzerland.

Ah... Thank you, I'm pleased to be reassured that I have got exactly what I thought I was purchasing.

Great watch! As Roff says its for the Japanese market, not Japanese manufactured.


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Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how this watch differs from a standard Avenger II. Is there something unique about it?

Regardless, congrats on your new Breitling!

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Cheers,
Jim

Was asking myself the same question... The only thing I can think of is maybe a smaller size as the Japanese have quite thin wrists. If not, no idea.

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We dropped by another dealership yesterday and the guy in there said he could see no difference at all. All he could say was that I was very lucky to have a one in five hundred limited edition as normally limited editions would often be runs of around two thousand or so.

Looking at the exchange rate it would be good business for a dealer to buy from Japan and sell in the uk right now, I haven't considered tax to be fair. However, I bought the watch from a Breitling approved dealer listed on their website... surely stock comes direct from Breitling?
This is a new watch, the serial numbers all match up and I watched them activate the warranty.

I may go back in and ask them if I get a chance later this week. In the meantime any further info or thoughts from anyone else would be appreciated!

So for those interested... I dropped in to the store yesterday and they were absolutely bamboozled as to why it is limited. They confirmed that there is no difference to a regular version except for the 'limited' enscription on the rear; they also confirmed it had come direct from Breitling. So the next step was for them to call Breitling sales and ask them if they knew anything about it. A few pics were emailed over and they asked for some time to dig a little deeper.

Fast forward to today - Breitling have confirmed that the watch is bona fide and is part of a collection made for a Japanese distributor, however, it should have a white dial with blue subdials. They can't explain how it ended up with my dealer in the UK, they did at first suggest that I had engraved it after purchase but the dealer confirmed otherwise. So in theory this now means my watch is not 142/500 but actually 1/1.

Can't be a bad thing can it?

I am very happy with the watch, have no plan of selling it and as long as this balls-up doesn't de-value it then I am very pleased to have a great little story to go with it.

I have asked the dealer to confirm all this in writing, does anybody else have any suggestions/advice for me with regards to documenting this?

Great watch, interesting story. I've got nothing to add other than thinking if there is no face/case difference perhaps just the case back got somehow on the wrong watch at the factory. Maybe there is some guy in Japan with a white/blue face and standard case back.

Thoughts?

Most likely explanation, and wouldn't be the first time.