The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I know very little about Breitling, but I hope to locate a nice vintage (1944-50, or so) Breitling, preferably with a butler silver and black-numeral dial. I am attracted to the early Premiers, but this is not a requirement. I also like the up/down Venus movements. I own the 3rd edition of the book by Benno Richter which includes the calibers by case reference # and also the serial number list. Has anyone published a list of the various case sizes? I would love to know at a quick glance if certain cases are too small for me to wear. I think something at least 40mm x 34mm is required, and probably 42mm x 36mm or larger is preferred. Thanks in advance!

Rick

no book with case sizes has been published and Richter held almost none of the watches he writes about in his hands, so never got close to measuring them.

travelling, so just some quick info for the moment off the top of my head, concentrating on the refs. u could realistically find in the vintage market.

Venus 170s up/down: ref. 170 is abt. 33mm, 176 and 178 are 36ish

column wheel Premiers (leaving the unfinadable square models aside): only ref. 789 is quite small at 32.5; refs. 734, 765, 777, 788 are very large for the period at diameters of around 38mm (these vary slightly over the years), all others are 35 to 36mm.

mid range Venus 188: ref. 2100 is very small, 1192 abt. 34, all others 35mm plus, 1190/1194 are abt. 38mm.

Fred,

What are ref numbers for square chronos? Did not know these existed (maybe I need to buy the book). Has anyone ever seen them in real life?

David

well, that book......

here's the '46 catalog page, David. if u search for member enigma here on the forum, we had one we discussed some years ago; mega rare without doubt, but they did exist, movements were R69s.