The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Good evening ,
I am new in this forum.
I just received a watch from my grandfather and I need some help identifying it.
The strap is not the original but I have the original one.
Can somebody give me some more information?
Thank you

I am afraid it is far from a genuine Breitling Chronomat 769 , just browse here or on google and you will see by yourself.

Of that I have serious doubts.
The watch was bought brand new by my grandfather when he was young and it was serviced already several times and everything is matching inside.I agree with you that I cannot find much information.

You can send pics of the movement and caseback inside...
Based on your 3 pics , either it was not a Breitling 769 from the beginning, or during successive services , at least dial, dial ring, case , hands and crown were replaced by some very approximative non Breitling parts.
It is easy to find a lot of pics of 769 here or on Google and check the différences .

I was able to open the watch today.
Attached some pictures of the inside.
I spoke with my father and the watch was overhauled in the breitking representative here in Portugal in the 80.
Also marked the services in the back casing inside.

case does not look correct for a 769, lugs form is way off.
dial & sliderule are VERY incorrect refinishinga at least and bear no resemblance to Chronomat dials of the period , hands are incorrect for a 1940s Breitling and were introduced in the very late 1950s and used on Premier and Top Time until the mid 1960s.
caseback says the watch is stainless stelle, but the main case looks to be chromed base metal ?

better pics might help us to say a bit more - and please chec the lugh wight, these seemer wider than 18mm ?

I was checking some invoices of the services and the hands were changed in the 80 at a Breitling representative in Portugal. They also say that they did something to the dial but not clear if they changed or restore it.
The casing is chromed but the cover is stainless steel.
I still have the invoices from the services but they are in portuguese.

Width of the lugs 18mm

as said, lug proportions are off - casebacks for chromed cases were marked "stainless steel back".
there is absolutely zero doubt the dial is incorrect - ALL Chronomat has logarithmic sliderules, not Telemeters - would have been called ChronoTEL otherwise.

Like stated before the watch was bought new by grandfather in the 40's so I now that is a breitling. Then it past to my father and now to me so it has some sentimental value. I don't know exactly what happen. I already see that there was a lot replacements during the years.

As told by Fred and me , most of the parts are different from Chronomat 769 standard parts ; case, caseback, dial, sliderule ...
According to serial number the watch would be issued in 1946 . If it originally was a Breitling Chronomat 769 , today the major components are so different that it cannot be considered as a real Chronomat . I cannot imagine a service center replacing part after part by approximative copies ?
Coming back to your initial request " need help to identify a Breitling 769" , I am afraid that nobody here would identify it as a Breitling Chronomat 769 or any other version .
Fred?

Phil; well, I can only repeat myself. we got surprisingly bad pictures, not a single one showing case & lugs in full.

as far as I can tell, the lug shapes seem different to all known 769 cases; her my only (earlier) chrome case:



without any doubt the caseback is incorrect for this case - chrome cases need casebacks marked "stainless steeel back", this is a caseback from a SS ref. 769, so we can't even consider the serial number as a dating tool.

no need to discuss the dial and the sliderule insert are blatantly incorrect ? Not doubting the watch has sentinmental value, although in the current shape it is not a Breitling Chronomat.

Thank you for the information. I see that my watch has a lot of problems. Is this watch completely original for a 40 chronomat? I was looking in the internet for several examples and I see a lot of different hands. How should they be ?

if with "this watch" you refer to my example above: yes, these are the correct hands for an early non-lume dial. lume dial hands are different.

but again, any attempt to make your watch correct would be to find a caseback and above all a correct dial and sliderule. only then u can say which hands would be correct for that - none of these are easy to find.

changing the 60s hands on this refinished dial makes little sense.

Is this a correct case?