The Breitling Watch Source Forums

In a previous discussion about Venus and Valjoux movements, it was pointed out that both were owned by "Ebauches SA" -- thanks Roff.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15761&start=45

I found an interesting article covering the history of this company.

http://www.watchtime.com/print-archive/

In the keyword search put - ebauches sa

The article is called "WT_2006_06:History of ETA".

The watchtime databse has a lot of articles available for download and seem to be one of the few magazines who spend time on vintage watches.
Other articles of interest --

WT_2004_03: VALJOUX CHRONOGRAPH CALIBERS

WT_2006_02: THE HISTORY OF THE CHRONOGRAPH

The last article by Gisbert Brunner contains the tantalising line:

"The first patents for an hour-counter
mechanism date from the year 1892, but the
problem had only been theoretically conquered.
No tangible incarnation of a functional
mechanism appeared until 1937, when Universal
Genève was granted a patent (no.
1089191) on the corresponding technical solution.
Breitling launched a model with a 12-
hour counter on the basis of a Valjoux movement
blank in 1938. Other watch manufacturers
followed suit in subsequent years."

12 hours counter of 1938: I dont know, its real or fake ?

And here another early Breitling 12 hours counter:


I just noticed it is almost the same as that: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16359

too many coincidences !!

But everybody only fakes it, because Bill has it not in his books

I have real hundreds of 12 counter Breitlings, but my first with Venus 152/178 is from 1945, all without incabloc, my first with incabloc is from 1951 .

(my first Breitling chronograph off all with incabloc is from 1945, but I have also a lot Chronomats Venus 175 from 1945/46/47 witout incablock)

For me it seems, was more highly developed the movement, the later Breitling has used incabloc. Logically, would be actually the opposite. Who can explain it.