The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi, thought would seek some clarification on gold 806's. Would a 806 Venus SS model be rarer/more expensive than an equivalent gold model? What about v/s an earlier 806 SS Venus model? And if the gold ones are very rare would they be rarer and more expensive than the 54-55 V72 806's? Not sure since have seen some very highly priced gold 806's
http://www.chrono24.com/en/breitling/ra ... /index.htm

http://www.chrono24.com/en/breitling/na ... /index.htm

Trying to predict that is a mug's game.

Generally speaking 18k is worth more than SS which is worth more than gold filed / gold plate. However, there are so many variables around provenance, condition, originality, etc, etc, etc, that any single piece will break those rules.

in 1965, with prices taken from a 1965 booklet w/ prices that came with a watch:

a SS 806 would cost 475 DM , with the exchange rate of 4:1 DM:USD , so roughly 120 USD
a 18K Gold 806 would cost 935DM = 233 USD

So roughly double SS vs 18K

fast fwd to 2011 , I believe a good example 18K Gold piece will roughly be twice the amount of money asked than a stainless steel model , maybe an 18K Gold will fetch a little more ?

All in All the percentage difference shouldn't vary greatly ie an 18K piece should fetch roughly twice what a SS model fetches.

Now gold filled or plated is a different story IMO, as I believe its a wannabee gold watch where you run the risk that the plating will wear off or at least tarnish , thus leaving you with an even less desireable watch
I do not believe GF should fetch a premium over SS even tho initially they were 15DM (4 USD) more expensive

btw, the most expensive Breitling watch then was the AVI @ 520 DM (130 USD) with the Cosmonaute @ 515 DM (129 USD) as a very close 2nd
and the $1.00 in 1965 had the same buying power as $7.02 in 2011 , so luxury watches have increased many times inflation

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"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

Thanks Roff, Dracha. True, most gold models start life expensive but then with vintage ones, collectors determine their value. Didn't know there were two types of gold 806's, gold plated/filled and 18k gold 806's.

There aren't, there are three:

Gold plated - single molecules of gold applied to a base metal in a very thin layer
Gold filled - sheet of gold, generally 10 microns thick in this vintage of watch - more resilient than plated, but still wears
18K - solid 18k gold

well, this is a rare occasion, but Roff, at least the later vintage 806 GFs were 20 microns.

found this almost-NOS piece including box, papers and tags some time ago and could not resist because of the impeccable condition and bought my first non-SS 806; funny thing is that it is now among my favorite pieces, looks just great on the wrist and is the most "noticed" of watches, quite an elegant piece, actually.

I thought the move to 20 microns came later, but happy to be wrong - 20 is obviously better and is what is used today by Breitling as 'rolled gold'

Thanks Roff, so do these 3 different ones have differing model sub reference number for identification?

Looks beautiful. Which of the 3 gold types is your watch?

Nope.

Easy to tell the difference between 18k and filled / plated because only gold has a gold caseback vs. SS, but not so easy to tell the difference between plated and filled.

Thanks Roff, that's very interesting!

as Roff explained, you can immediately tell from the SS caseback it is not solid 18k (though we have seen some advertised as such), it is 20 micron "rolled gold".

Also curious, how much of 18k gold weight is actually there in these 18k gold watches? Just trying to judge how valuable their gold content is in markingup the price.

Thanks, yours is a stunner, maybe some wrist shots would be awesome!

Well without getting into metallurgy, that's actually a difficult thing to answer. Generally gold is valued by weighing the gold and then multiplying by the carat - so 100 grams of 18k gold would be considered to 75 grams of pure gold (18/24). However, gold is assessed based on parts, not weight so depending on the metals that it is alloyed with the actual weight of gold can vary.

As a rough estimate the gold content will be 75% of the weight of the case, but recognise that is a flawed calculation.