jlee5050 wrote:
Just curious...
why are these Unidates so collectable? I know I'm a sucker for non-chronos too but I noticed these usually demand a bit more on the market...
During the fifties and sixties the date automatics were the quality watches desired by most people. The chronographs were marketed to a limited audience that had engineering, sailing, or aviation interests. Most folks just wanted a good quality watch that they could rely upon. Longines Ultra-chron, UG Polerouter, Zenith Defy are examples of watches from that period that still have a strong following. Of course the Rolex Datejust was the big boy but not everyone could afford one back then. The Breitling Unidate was just the Breitling version of these watches and had one of the best automatic movements available at the time. The Bidynator Felsa models were the first to have bi-directional rotor winding so it was an innovative movement for it's time.