The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi..All:

I know it may be a stupid question, but I do want to understand what or how people in your

countries think about Breitling? As everyone knows, Omega has a very good commercial advisemetn

and promotion for its brand. Most of the people know Omega, but Breitling. Many of my friends ask

me to buy Seamaster, because everyone who see Seamaster will say "Oh....Good Watch". However,

I do like Breitling by my personal views and feeling. Please kindly share how you feel with me.



Lee

Before I got my SO I looked at all the other makes out there, Rolex etc but at the end of the day It had to be a Breilting !

I have like the look of them for years and allways wanted one and when I finally got the chance (had to get around my wife 1st ) I went for it and will never look back.
Now got to work on my wife to get my next one which could take a while

_________________
Superocean (black dial 2008 model), Avenger Blackbird

Historically Breitling was associated with aviation and pilots tend to know the brand fairly well. In recent years the marketing has definitely been at younger people - especially with the aeromarine range.

It's not a brand that is known as well as Omega and Rolex among 'non watch' people, but sales volumes would suggest that they are definitely a big presence where it matters - where people actually buy.

Hi..
Thank you for your reply. I do agree that the history is one of the most important factors.....Let me see what

I will buy and go back to your guys....Have a good day!!

Most guys I know will know of Breitling, but have rarely seen one for real(except for colleagues), but think its exclusive. Most women I know think its a very expensive watch, like a 'longines' etc., but have never heard of Breitling.

The history of the Breitling brand is very interesting, and a good example of how ownership of trade mark rights carries more weight in the minds of consumers than physical components and tooling.

One thing I’ve become much more aware of over the last few months of reading is the importance of the Bankruptcy of Breitling during the 1978-1980 period. Breitling was very much de rigueur – especially in Europe - up until about the mid seventies when the quartz re(de)volution kicked in. By 1980, the brand which was owned by the Breitling family was finished, but Ernest Schneider purchased the intellectual property required to re-launch the brand, whilst a couple of smaller companies, Sinn and Ollech & Wajs, purchased remaining stock and tooling. Some might argue that the watches produced by those smaller companies from the existing stock and using the same tooling are closer to “real” Breitlings than watches subsequently produced by the Schneider owned corporate entity.

The new Navitimer and Chronomat range launched by the Schneider owned Breitling took the brand into new territory by the 90s when mechanical watches became popular again, and started to penetrate the US and Asian markets. During that time, the Schneider owned Breitling progressively improved the overall quality and consistency of the watches produced – as have most Swiss watch companies.

Over the last decade, and especially with the introduction of the Bentley line, the brand has been progressively climbing the prestige ladder. Of course, back in the final days of the brand’s previous apex of popularity in the late sixties/early seventies, Breitlings were not cheap, and even all gold models were available – but prior to the Schneider era, Breitlings were seen more as high end tool watches than luxury timepieces. Indeed, some models still fit into that category – although at the higher end of the price spectrum.

It will be interesting to see where the brand goes from here – hopefully towards more fully “in-house” movements without excessive pricing. On the first point, the pre-Schneider Breitling company was certainly involved with the development of the world’s first automatic chronograph, and for a number of years the modern company has in fact been producing many of the generic components itself. On the second point, Breitling sometimes gets it wrong. For example, I think it’s a commonly held view that the Flying B’s – questionable design aesthetics aside – have always been over priced.

I actually like the fact that some ‘non-watch’ people have never heard of the brand – but with what seems to be an ever increasing advertising budget at Breitling, those days are probably numbered!

Maybe it's me but I think it's a pretty well known name. I can name a bunch of different companies that are probably much less popular than Breitling such as Chopard, Panerai, Baume & Mercier, Longine, Rado, etc. All decent to high end watches and probably have much less name recognition than Breitling.