The Breitling Watch Source Forums

It's not really about "hype". It has a lot to with exclusivity, differentiation, and craftsmanship.

The vast majority of movements in most automatic watches these days (especially at the lower end of the market) are made by ETA. If we consider the 7750 movement, which ETA/Valjoux produces, you'll find it in a huge number of watches - from Hamilton to Tag, from Ernst Benz to Breitling. The lower down the watch scale you go, the more "standard" the movement will be. In other words a company like Hamilton will just drop a standard ETA 7750 into their own case. Tag do the same. So what is there to differentiate the Tag from the Hamilton, other than a slightly different case and a different logo? Answer - not a lot. And therein lies the problem.

Additionally ETA movements are generally made in mostly automated factories ; bear in mind that the skill of watch making is perceived to be in skills of a person, not some machine. Also ETA movements, while doing the job admirably, aren't exactly interesting or innovative these days.

An in-house movement is a watch-maker's way of saying, "we are so skilled we can make our own movements from scratch, not just drop in a bog-standard ETA into a case". It also allows the watch maker to throw away the rule book and create something different - innovative chronographs, very long power reserves, super complications, all sorts of funky stuff.

In effect, an in-house movement will raise Breitling above being (and I quote one of the other forum guys here), "just a fancy case and bracelet".

Think of it this way - would a Ferrari car still be a Ferrari if they bought their engines from BMW? No, while the BMW engines are fine enough, a Ferrari is only a Ferrari if they make the engine as well. It's only the "little players" in the car industry who buy in engines : all the big boys build their own. So it is with watches.

This is actually a very interesting topic. I would like to know what set a Breitling appart from all the other brands that uses the ETA 7750 movement. I think paying $4000 or up for a watch should show some perfection. I'm a perfection freak and I'm already very disappointment that my watch (Breitling AS) is off by a minute a week. Even my automatic Seiko does better. I better set the time every week otherwise I might not be in time at my customers.

To be honest. It looks like the COSC is not taken very seriously anymore.
This is what Wikipedia states: "In 1973, the B.O.’s came under the C.O.S.C. which specified a daily rate of -4/+6 sec.". Looking at that I would asume, 36 years later, we can make the watches a lot better and more accurate. A couple of other interesting things that I found on Wikipedia are: "ETA SA (full business name ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse) is a Swiss producer of mechanical and quartz watch movements. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swatch Group." and: "Valjoux (for Vallée de Joux, "Joux Valley") is a Swiss manufacturer of mechanical watch movements. It is known primarily for chronograph ébauche movements that are used in a number of mid- to high-range mechanical watches: The company has been a part of ETA for a number of years and is a member of the Swatch Group.". It is interesting to see that they fall under the Swatch group. I know they make 3 grades but still can somebody tell me where the value is?
Don't get me wrong, I like the looks of Breitling. I'm just somebody that like to spend more for quality and I have a feeling that quality might mean something else for watches.

On top of that I think (and please tell me if I'm wrong) that 6 seconds a day is a lot. 36 Years later and we are still going by the -4/+6 seconds rule. I just can't believe that they couldn’t make a more accurate movement in this time period.

I know I should have looked more into this before I bought the watch