The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Good morning

I am French, please excuse my poor English.
Moreover I am new on this forum. I discovered it when I tried to find some information about the watch I found on an antic market. I did not paid it too expensive, but I not a Breitling collector and am not sure to keep it.

My questions are following ones :

1- identification :
According to you, is this watch ok (not a fake) ?
I understood it is a 788 model (as marked on it !) , but regarding the serial number (660159), is it made in 1945 , 50' or lattest ?
The watch is in gold plated not entire gold. Is it possible for this type of model?

2- repair :
I must add a complete wristwatch and making sure that all mechanism is OK (the winder seems ok, minute & hours hand ok). Moreover the dial is not perfect (to be clean because used or figures not clear on the edge)
I live in Paris and can visit official Breitling shop but repairs are quite expensive.
Do you think repairs can be made by a local shop not Breitling one ?
Do you think repairs can be launched by comparison on the market value of this watch ?


Thanks

Regards

Welcome to the forum !

Well, this one has me scratching my head a bit (to put it mildly), much seems wrong about this watch, but it definitely is not a recent fake.

Reference number 788 is basically correct for a waterproof tricompax Premier, but I have not seen a convincing plated Premier, my assumption was/is that Premiers came in stainless and 18k only, would love others to chime in.

Serial number would date the watch to manufacturing year 1946, but the applied "B" and capitals Breitling logo are early/mid 1950s design changes, which would then require (well almost, the 1955 Chronomat 2508 did not have it) a "Geneve" below the logo.

Hands are definitely replacements, but this is a minor issue; logo on the movement bridge is also clearly incorrect for a watch from the mid 1940s.

Regarding restoration and repair: The current Breitling corporation has no connection to the original company that manufactured this watch, I doubt they would restore this watch and even if, it would be prohibitively expensive, WAY above the value a perfectly restored piece would have.

If you decide to go ahead with restoration (at least dial cleaning) and service, my suggestion would be to contact forum member chronodeco, he lives in the US, but services my watches and the watches of many other forum members from Europe or Australia.

I think that the watch is all original Breitling, but not from the same piece. It would appear as though the dial and movement from one watch has been put into another watch's case.

I don't have a good explanation for the plated case or the absence of Geneve on that style of dial however - but they look like real Breitling - very odd.

If you look on page 119 of Richters book you'll see a ref 788 with almost the same dial from 1958. The Venus 152 is the correct movement and this 3-register configuration was used as early as 1946. So we have a bit of a mystery. Pretty sure the hands are wrong which would indicate that someone has been doing something inside no matter how old the watch is. the back appears to have the script Breitling and B on it which would indicate 1958 is about right. Everything looks about right except for the hands and the serial number although the back is also unusual. The serial number indicating 1946 just doesn't make any sense because the case design and back look like 1958. Interesting piece.

Just found this one; http://www.lamesuredutemps.com/one.cfm?Premier%20788&uuid=E77AA3FD-DF9E-4B62-681235ABB77B9AC4

The Op's watch appears similar but with enough changes to be suspicious. Methinks someone has been working overtime on this one.

Thanks for all your comments.

I will see with Chronodeco if it is worth to repair it, as I do not want to keep it.

Regards