The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hey.... I wanted to change the Dial color of my Avenger... I was trying to see if someone knew of a reputable company that can do such customazation?..

The only way is through Breitling which will cost a fortune - generally $1,200 - $1,500 with the mandatory service. If you do it with a third party Breitling will insist on restoring the original colour during service - at your cost.

That is just one reason why Breitling service policies are unreasonable.

Recently, I had an opportunity to purchase a Chronomat GMT 47mm at a fantastic price, but it did not have the color dial I wanted (brown). I thought, "Hey, let's just change the dial." I rang up Alex at Swiss Watch Service here in Florida to find out what they would charge to change out the dial.

He said they wouldn't do it unless I provided the dial (find one on eBay!). He reasoning is that the serial number of a watch catalogs it's case, dial, hands and movement. If he tried to get a dial from Breitling, it would have to be the same dial that came with the watch and that the old dial has to be sent back to Breitling. He also said the same thing that Roff said above, that if you changed it and sent it back to Breitling for any service, they would change the dial back and charge you for the new dial and the cost for the change along with the service fee.

I've opted to wait till I find and get EXACTLY the Chronomat I want.

I wonder if Breitling's tight hold on parts and the inability to change watches with different colored dials is simply their way of controlling the market so no modified versions of their watches will be out there? Maybe it is their concern that their cache will be lessened if they don't hold control? Or is it just about making more money by tightly controlling service and parts costs? I really wonder what the rest of the group thinks?
Kevin

I think it's a bit of both.

By preventing people from making their own potentially hideous creations by mixing and matching genuine parts, Breitling are protecting their brand image. (Breitling prefer to occasionally make their own hideous creations from the parts bin now and then! ) It's the same kind of thing when you buy a new house from a developer here in the UK whereby they often don't allow you to change the front aspect of the house in any way for the first 10 years as it would potentially affect the brand image / corporate standard if people did something weird to their house while it was still a newish development. After all, a brand's existing products are one of the most effective means of marketing to potential new customers.

And yes, preventing supplier of parts direct to customers means that people have to send their watches in to Breitling for repairs, which means that once you factor in the "always necessary" service cost, it becomes quite a nice little cash cow for the company.

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Driver8

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