The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi,

My father recently gave me his Breitling Navitimer 806. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures at this time to post on the site. The thing that is different about the one I have is that the logo on the face (upper-middle) of the watch is a cursive 'B' as opposed to the plane or AOPA Wings. I know he purchased it in the 1960s, but I haven't seen one with the 'B' instead of the plane or wings. Obviously I cannot ask anyone to verify the authenticity of my watch, since I have no pictures, but can someone please clarify whether or not they've seen a Navitimer 806 with the cursive 'B' logo before? I took the watch in to get serviced about two months ago and there weren't any problems and I received many compliments on it, so I'm assuming that it's authentic, but again, I just wanted to know more about the logo on my particular watch. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

- Andrew

There are some AVI and co-pilots that do, not sure about pure 806's though.

Take a look at the collectors section of www.navitimer.net there is an AVI and a copilot on page 2.

Do you have a serial number for the piece so we can date more accurately?

Hi, welcome aboard.

Have you been on: http://www.navitimer.net ?

Is this the one you are talking about? It's a 66 Navitimer Copilot

_________________

Thanks for the quick responses!

I just got off the phone with my dad. This is what he told me:

He acquired the watch for $50 from a friend who was a pilot in the late 1960s. He still has some paperwork from the purchase and the original owner's manual. He said the paperwork has a spot for the date and serial number but both were left blank -- probably because he purchased it from a friend, not from an actual store. Does $50 sound like a normal price for a Navitimer in the 60s?

He said within a few years of owning it, he accidentally jumped into a pool with it and had to send it into Breitling to get serviced. He told me the only place in the US at the time that was authorized to do this was Breitling in New York. He said when it was sent back the band was replaced with a black croc skin band.

On the back of the watch is Breitling, Stainless Steel, and 806, but no serial number on the watch itself. The watch really looks identical to all the other Navitimers I've seen from the mid to late 60s except for the cursive 'B' instead of the wings or plane. The next time I am home I will certainly take a picture and post it here.

So, since he's owned it, the watch has been serviced just twice (he said the second time the watch owner ripped into him for not getting it serviced earlier).

OK -- that's all I've got for the story of this particular Navitimer. But I will say, it's rather disconcerting that no one has ever seen a watch that matches this description.

Any ideas at all??

Thanks again!

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=25057

it actually looks just like the watch in the 7th picture...

except the 'B' on my dad's watch is white, not gold

I think we are going to need some pictures, and ideally a photo of the inside of the caseback and the movement - a watchmaker will be happy to help remove the caseback.

The Valjoux 72 Navitimers with a B are unbelievably rare, and I have never heard of one that wasn't gilded. The movement photo will show whether it's a Venus 178 or a Valjoux 72, and the inside of the caseback will be where the serial number is.

If as you say the watch looks identical to the one on Alan's history except for the B being non gilded, that's completely inconsistent with a late 60s Navitimer which would have white subdials, red and black numbering on the slide rule and would not have the rice bezel.

In terms of cost - a new Navitimer would have had a list price of just over $200 for a steel one - $50 doesn't sound right, nor does open paperwork - I'd love to see some pictures of that too - we have a mystery here