The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello, just joined... in my time I've had a few navitimers, nothing too special. I had a question about what they made their plated cases out of in the 1940s... I can't seem to find it online. Anyone know? Steel, nickel, brass? Has anyone just treated this metal when the plating has rubbed off, rather than having it replated? not looking to bastardize a watch, I've just never been a fan of the plate.

Thanks much!

-P

I'm not sure - don't think that the Swiss were using brass by this period. Craig (chronodeco) does restoration work so he will likely know.

Thinking about this further I'm pretty sure that it was steel even in the 40s.

Interesting, for the longest I thought that at least other manufacturers were using brass in the 40's. Hopefully Craig will join in. Thanks!

Hi,

I'm a new poster. I've been reading the site for the last couple of months
and think it's great.

I thought this extract from the Breitling 1946 catalogue might be of interest. It seems
that back in the 40's you could customise your Breitling, specifiying case material
and dials.

Also the vintage gallery at Timezone lists two plated watches (8 and 17).

http://people.timezone.com/breitling/bf ... ction.html

Hope that's of interest. Congrats on a wonderful site.

Yaffle

They certainly offered gold and nickel plating, much like today you can have the same watch in steel or gold.

The cadette that is plated aluminum is in large part a cost measure as these were the value pieces of their time.

The stainless steel caseback seems unlikely to me if the case were brass.

I think most of the Breitling cases in the 40s and into the 50s only came in 18k gold, stainless or chrome plating. The earliest Breitlings that had gold plating were done in the late 50s as I recall. These had brass cases - at least the ones that I have worked on. This is all from memory, I have not kept any record of this. My 1959 gold plated Nav has a brass case. Craig

_________________
S. Craig Bergsma

Wow - I had no idea that they were still plating brass in the late 50s.

Learn something new every day!!!!

Out of interest do you know what other metals might be used in plating besides brass?

Brass is a common plating base - I'm no metallurgist so not sure what it is that makes it appealing. Steel is also used, and that's what Breitling uses today (although they don't plate modern Breitlings they are 'rolled' gold which is a thin sheet laminated to base metal.

The relatively low cost Breitling Cadettes had aluminum cases, and I know that nickel can also be used - but no idea if Breitling ever used it. There are likely other base metals that make good bases but you'll need someone with more materials science knowledge.

Thanks.