The Breitling Watch Source Forums

hello all

i thought i had been on all of the watch forums that existed until i chanced upon this board

a little bit about myself- i live in the north of england and am 50 years old, i've collected (and loved!) watches since i was around 15/16 years old (my grandad was a watch repairer and used to make one clock per year then raffle it off just before christmas, thios was just after WW2 when times were hard!)

i have no particular theme to my watch collecting but vintage is my favourite type of watch though i have all sorts from ancient to waveceptors , i have somewhere in the region of 2000 pieces , it used to be more but i gave my son a load to sell at the carboot sales (which he just about gave away )
a couple of years ago i bought a rotary watch for a tenner and the chap gave me a bag of watches free gratis, he told me that there was 'one good quality' watch in the bag but i didn't have my specs with me so i took it with a pinch of salt...
when i got my glasses i couldn't have been more wrong, below is the good quality watch






yup a navityimer 806, the watch has been through the wars slightly as there are two subdial hands adrift (they are still in between the crystal and dial though) the second counter hand is bent, the dial is scratched probably by a briken crystal at some time in the past, the crystal is chipped...
the centre second counter hand doesn't reset to the top but rather about ten seconds past, though it does reset the exact same place each time meaning that the hand needs removing and resetting to zero.

can the age be determined from the serial number which is 1021431, i reckon it's '60's but don't really know, also does anyone know of a decent company to restore this watch in to a wearable condition, ie- straighten the bent hand, reset all of the chrono hands and fit a new crystal..

the watch runs very strongly and keeps really good time, i thinmk it just needs a little tlc to get it all back together correctly, i used to 'play' at repairng my broken watches but don't want to have any little accidents with this one (as i really like it )

i'll stop typing now before everyone falls asleep (sorry for waffling on-oh and the not very good pics, i'm non too good with a camera )

kind regards, john....

Oh my!

2,000 watches - that's way too many and you absolutely have to sell some of them to me immediately!!!

Great story, not boring at all!

The watch is indeed 60s - 1965 from the serial number which is perfectly correct for the style of 806 that you have. Only thing that I believe to be non original is the outer slide rule - should have some red on it by 1965, but these were routinely replaced during servicing if they became faded - not the end of the world.

Rest of the hands are period correct if not original and the Venus movement looks to be in fine condition and correct.

Can't comment on anyone in the UK - we have a member here who may be able to do the work (he's in the US) - chronodeco (Craig). Breitling UK don't work on vintage pieces anymore if I remember correctly but they may be able to recommend someone - certainly in North America they have an 'approved' restorer.

Great to have you on the forums - welcome!

wow!!- ultrafast reply


many thanks for the info


regards, john

Welcome John. Good to have you here!

thanks for the welcome lads

i think i will be doing a fair bit of reading from now on



john

Roff. wrote:

Really? Since when?

I may be wrong - working from memory as I said. Some Breitling regional locations haven't done it for some time - BUSA being the obvious example, and I thought BUK was another. Happy to be proved incorrect.

Welcome aboard.
Crazy number of watches you have.

That is a lot of watches and a great story Love the navitimer!

_________________
Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"

No bnewbie - it's a lot of watches, but nothing crazy - just a target to aim for

Great find!

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For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
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hello lads

i sent the 806 to a chap here in the UK, steve burrage of ryte time watch repairs and he re-fitted (and reset) the hands, i think he gave the dial a clean with rodico and fitted a new crystal.. (only cost £26 )

i'll be saving some cash up to have a full refurb (apparently BUK does still work on vintage pieces )




john