The Breitling Watch Source Forums

About 10-15 years ago it seemed to me that Breitling was much more popular than it is now. Growing up I always viewed Rolex followed by Breitling as the most popular and nicest watches. (Within reason and in the mainstream. Excluding Patek, AP, RM, etc) It seemed every jewelry store carried Breitling and displayed it at the front of the store.

Now I go to jewelry stores and it seems as if Breitling is an after thought and I rarely see any Breitling posted on here. On WUS the breitling section is very slow.

I understand a lot of Breitlings were/are oversized, but there are many that are around the 40-43mm size.

Was this just perception or has Breitling decreased in popularity over the years?

That's good question I'm also very curious. Their watches are great and prices seem very fair for the quality put into the watches. I wear my Superocean everyday and haven't had service since new 4 years ago. No problems at all.

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Breitling SuperOcean Chronograph Rose Gold

I think there's two things at play here -

Firstly, Breitling went through a period of not really knowing where it was going until Kern took over, and I think that period of "experimentation" (for want of a better word) didn't do the brand any favours. The problem was that while some liked the pieces from that era, it also alienated a lot of fans of the older Breitling. (I saw the words "mall watches" used a couple of times, and that was something I hated to hear about a brand I'm passionate about!). However, I think Breitling have certainly regained some much needed direction under Georges, and (IMO) their watches are looking much more coherent again. Hopefully that will translate into more passion for the brand again over time.

The second reason for a lack of traffic on this and other forums is often down to social media. For whatever reason, groups on FB and the like seem to be more popular these days, although IMO they are nowhere near as good a resource as forums. Social media is very "immediate" and a great way for companies to connect to their consumers, but most groups I've come across tend to be nothing more than brag-fests. I was a member of two Rolex groups on FB, but there was only so many pictures of Submariners/GMTs, etc, next to money clips bulging with hundred dollar bills, or next to Porsche/Bentley/Ferrari key fobs that I would take.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

actually I’m quite unsure that’s true.
sales records in quantities and turnover, growing well above market.

Breitling's are fairly popular in the watch community buy maybe not to the general consumer.

Thanks

I second Driver8 on social media: since e. g. FB groups are more and more alive I also visit fora (including this one) more and more rarely but that's only flying with the wind. I do not think Breitling has dropped on popularity and regarding sales and alike Fred knows the data you can believe. But with Kern changing the direction of the brand the population of Breitling fanatics certainly change too: if you gain two new and lose one older fan you are on the winner side, but you have certainly lost someone. You cannot please everyone at the same time.
In the first Kern times there were lots of decisions to be made, naturally with some to be corrected in the meantime. E. g. despite choosing the model family name "Navitimer 8" has the perfect background, because of quite a few critical voices (based mainly on keeping the "Navitimer" name monolithic as the Nr. 1. brand name within Breitling). There are some clearly self-restricting other decisions too that I cannot understand the reasons behind them and if I were decesion-maker there I surely wouldn't agree - some of them seem have been corrected since then, but not all.
So I think that under the line Breitling is on the right track but for the greater population who are possible buyers it might take a bit longer time to realize where the brand right now is and where it is heading in the future. Remember: we, as the enthusiast group have the earliest informations about most news and novelties.
Best,
Robert

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Current: Breitling Chronomat 41, Steelfish Chrono BEB dials, CSO I. Japan Limited, Grand Premiers both dials, Aerospace Avantage, IWC Aquatimer 3719 3767, Fliegerchrono 3705, Sinn 103 St plexy

Just realised - the OP is another copy-and-paste idiot -

https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/commen ... unpopular/

And then THIS post was itself copied by yet another copy-and-paste idiot here a day later!

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=66338

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I was about to log on and talk about how wonderful Driver put it, but I guess it doesn’t matter now. I’m still not on Facebook and have no plans to be. I still enjoy the forums for watches and find it easier and less of a pain to deal with that Facebook or instagram.

On a serious note, I do think Kern has done a wonderful job turning around Breitling and I’m still looking forward to every time I see Fred post something about what else is on its way from Breitling. I keep looking at the Datejust 2 that I have that isn’t getting much wrist time and thinking if either the anthracite dial Premier would be a better fit.

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Justin
Please contact me via PM for the contact details for Govberg Jewelers
Govberg is an AD for over 50 fine Swiss and German watch brands.
Visit them on the web at http://www.govbergwatches.com or call 800-528-8463

These forums are much better for a collector. Proper archives of discussions, conclusions, observations etc. They fall down however on photos because most only host small resolution images, are difficult to upload, and photo links get deleted/lost. The social media sites are not very searchable, and in the case of the Breitling one seem to be mostly dominated by very nice people taking pictures of themselves wearing their watches in the toilet for some odd reason. What can be said?

That's a good question which can be seen from multiple angles...the way I see it though is the hype of rolex/AP/Patek just ruining everyone else except perhaps omega which still manages to sell it's limited editions...

Part of the problem is that people who know nothing about watches and are only concerned on bursting their statuses and keeping their money safe...hence why the choice is easy for them and at the same time hard for us who know our beauties....

On what planet is Breitling not popular? It may not have the largest share of the global watch market, but it's definitely up there.

I don't know about other countries but in my country, to see people wearing Breitlings is not common. It appears to me that many buy Breitlings as an addition to their collection but not many treat their Breitlings as the Holy Grail or "main watch", except some members in this forum. So I would say that it is not that Breitling is not popular, but more of like not people's first choice when all brands come together.

I do not really agree that the "inpopularity" is due to the ex-direction(design) or some sort but, I feel that it is more of the way the company markets their pieces, the "inconsistency" and frequent obvious facelifts, easy to get, lack of strict controls on price discounts, that you can even see classic pieces in garage sales, that people don't really need to go for resale, resulting in poor resale value that lead to it. Many consumers like consistency in design, highly sought after pieces that are not easily available and cannot find on display shelves. Rolex is one very good example. Batman resale prices irrationally going higher than two tone pieces. But many people still fall into it.

With Breitling's current direction(back to roots), sales will improve but...IMO the brand needs "premium pieces" that people cannot get that easily. Well, that's the mindset of the mass public. People tend to treasure things that don't come easy. IMHO resale value is a very critical factor that even if a consumer has no intention of selling his watch, he will want to see the value appreciate because after all it is not just a few hundred dollars watch that he is buying.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

This all boils down to brand management, which in the luxury segment, is everything. Rolex understands this better than just about any other luxury brand. Keep it easy to identify and hard to get. Breitling had some of this cache back in the 2000's but seemed to piss it away with oversaturation of the market and too many LE watches, they went too far away from hard to get and easy to identify. Once you lose this cache it is very difficult to get back. Other brands have come back from the abyss, so all is not lost but it will take a lot of time, money and brains to get that back. Otherwise the brand will continue to have horrible value retention from new and frequently found on websites like TJ Maxx.

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I'm over in Hong Kong , and it's Rolex Rolex Rolex , nobody seems interested in breitling and the shops can't shift em

In my humble opinion, some of the current collections don't make any sense at all. Take for instance, the Breitling Chronomat. Willy Breitling designed the Chronomat(hematician) with the vision that it will be used by scientists and engineers because of the revolutionary slide rule bezel. Nowadays, you can only use modern Chronomats for specialized tasks (because it only has tachymetres) rather than the full-blown variety of arithmetic operations the original Chronomats were capable of. This collection has really lost its essence and core. And sadly, most people probably couldn't tell apart the original Chronomats from the Navitimers. Please also don't get me started with the Superocean II (a.k.a. Sicura divers) or Aviator 8 (????) collections...