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PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:17 am 
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This is my personal investigation , and work in progress, helped by comments that I read on the Breitlingsource vintage board. I have taken all comments into consideration, even though I do not agree with all comments, and they have helped me come to the below conclusions.

Counting beads (yes really !)

So far I have found 6 different 'rice bead' bezels on Breitling Navitimer watches and I agree with Kurt B that “More beads is older” I just needed to verify this statement for myself (sorry Kurt ! :D ) so here are my findings.
If I find Navitimers with other bead counts , and if they are all correct and can be properly dated, I will add them to this list


125 Beads:
The Early Image 1954 Navitimers with V72 movements that I have been able to identify have 125 beads on the bezel and BOW (note 1) on the movement

Also the earliest know Image ad. From 1955 (note 4) With reference to a Navitimer has a BEzel with 125 beads on the bezel . Ad's are notorious for using older models so I am convinced they used the 1st released model for this. Interestingly though is that the Ad features a model with 'B' on the dial , not the 'AOPA' logo

Image

124 Beads:
Image

The late Image 1954 & 1955 Navitimers with V72 movements that I have been able to identify have 124 beads on the bezel and BOW on the movement.
Also the 1955 Navitimer with V72 movement and with an 806 caseback that Kurt recently bought (note 2) I consider this to be a transitional model between the V72's without Ref numbers and the V178 with the Ref 806 and this one has 124 beads. Export code most likely BOW but I am not sure as it cannot be seen in the Ebay auction

120 Beads:
The Image 1956 Navitimer with V178 movement had 120 beads . I used a private watch as reference and this watch has serial number 871713 with again BOW on the movement

98 Beads:
The Image 1957 Navitimer has 98 beads on the bezel ,as Identified on Kurt's site (note 3)


93 Beads:
The Image 1959 Navitimer I found w/ serial 919xxx + WOG and also here Image 1960 Navitimer with serial 932852 has 93 beads on the bezel and a WOG export code . And also a 1963 piece w/ serial 972995 I found has 93 Beads (no pic as I can only post 10 URL's in 1 post :?

Need further investigation:

94 Beads:
speculation warning !
I always assumed that Chronograph Suisse Aviation pieces (O&W ?) were build from parts that were sold when Breitling liquidated in the late 1970ies. the bead count on these bezels may tell a different story as I have not yet encountered Breitling 806's with 94 Beads , but Image these Aviation watches have 94 beads. Chronograph Suisse may have just bought the design of the 1st edition Navitimers & the early Chronomats w/ rice bead bezels ? .

92 Beads:
this Image Navitimer has 92 beads on the bezel, date ? I dont know yet


What is missing : I am missing some info on the '58 pieces , some more on the 92 beads pieces and more info on the Chronograph Suisse Aviation watches

If you have one of these can you send me a clear 'full frontal' pic so I can count the beads , the serial number and export code please ? I think that will help to identify age OR prove my theory wrong :D (and really, either way is fine with me !, I love facts)

If you would like to do you own counting as well, just let me know and I will send you the material I have used for verification


Thanks
-Rene

note 1) BOW is the import code until 1956/1957 WOG is the import code 1957/1958 onwards
BOW was used by watches imported into the USA by Breitling themselves, WOG was used by Wakmann

note 2) v ... 11&t=32952

note 3) http://www.watchlife.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=144

note 4) v ... 8&start=15

Copyright notice:
If you would like to use this information on your website or somehow publish it please link back to this article and this website as this info was first published on Breitlingsource & Kurts website (125 beads) and I couldnt have done this without all the info on Breitlingsource , Yaffle, Chris K, Kurt B, TomVox1 , Bill , Roff , our German 'contributer' with his own ideas and many other contributers , be it they posted non-sense to make me see the truth or radical new ideas , plain facts and 'just' world class info that helped me with my counting :D


edited for error in counting + added Chronograph Suisse
edited fixed pics
edited due to photobucket screwup

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Last edited by Dracha on Fri Jun 30, 2017 1:14 pm, edited 10 times in total.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:32 am 
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Nice work. I've never focused that hard on the Navitimers myself, but picking up from the previous discussion, it's nice to differentiate them in the same way say collectors do for the Submariner or the Speedmaster.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:32 am 
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great post, René !


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:31 pm 
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Awesome post René!


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 8:23 pm 
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Hello Rene,

I recently acquired a '58, serial 909xxx, export code WOG.

It's currently in the shop but before it went I had two different outcomes on the bead count. when I get it back I'll count it again. And again...

What say you?

Regards,
Chris


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 3:08 am 
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Hi Chris
I am not sure what you are asking ? if you have the serial number and can date it through the serial number there is no need to count the beads
this was mainly done to show correlation between beads and age / serial and to clear up some 'confusion' there was a long time ago on a particular batch of Navitimers that had a misstamped serial number

Rgds
Rene

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:12 pm 
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Hello Rene,

The serial number dates mine to 1958, but has a bead count of 96 --which is an amount I didn't see referenced within the post(s).

I know you stated the decline in beads from 1957 to 1959, but my bead count doesn't correlate to either reference. Could they have only produced a 96-bead-bezel for a single year?

Am I missing something?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

Regards,
Chris


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 1:18 pm 
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edited for photobucket 'updates'

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