The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello,

I'm new on this forum. I'm a (small) collector of vintage watches, and it is the first time that I want to buy a Breitling. What do you think of this Navitimer 806?

According to the Italian seller: "nice original vintage Breitling Navitimer with the great famous Venus 178 movement, dated around 1967, well working."

I would appreciate your kind & fair opinion.

Cheers,
JL (Brussels)

'65 based on the serial number although the dial would ordinarily suggest '67, although we seem to be seeing more of this type of dial from a couple of years earlier. Lme on the dial appears to have been redone.

Thank you for the comment. What do you understand with "Lme" in your answer?
Where can you find a list of Breitling serial numbers, is there any website?
What is the appr. value of this watch?
Can you evaluate/guess (based on pics) whether it is a real one?

welecome to the forum, JR !

watch was manufactured in 1965, dial is - most probably, pics are not too good - a later replacement and relume, it has the characteristics of a dial from 1967.

"lume" refers to the luminous substance (says "T" for Tritium on the dial, but looks like Super Luminova) on baton hour markers and the "12".

it is clearly authentic, nothing to "guess" here, but has been restored, note that hands and dial condition do not match.

what do you think the market price is?

JL

very, very roughly €/$ 2k

Seller asks 1.800 €, but based in Italy and difficult to reach...

I'm pretty sure it's brand new factory replacement dial, not vintage and not original IMO.

If it's original the logo should look precisely like the one to the left, the one to the right is a brand new Breitling replacement dial, and you can clearly see the difference. a close up picture of the logo on your watch will tell us for sure what it is.

Please also notice that the watch was not born with a dial with big subdials, as the small hands are for a dial with small subdials.

/ Kurt B

While we all agree that this dial is non original, that could simply be a case of replacement hands - arbors are the same.

Kurt: Not original or not authentic?

In my world it can only be original and authentic if it's vintage and period correct, but for others it's enough that it is "original" Breitling. Your watch was made by the Breitling family, the dial has been made by Breitling of today.

IMO the collectible value is stone dead, others don't feel that way.


/ Kurt B

Kurt, is for sure, that the replacement dials were made after 1978?

Few things in life is for sure, but to the best of my knowledge, the answer to your question it – yes, and I assume that you have compared the logo on the watch, with the ones I pictured, and that it looks like the one to the right.

What I don’t understand, is why you even consider buying it, when they are widely available in original condition, but that’s just how I feel.

/ Kurt B

Kurt, I'm not the starter of the thread, I'm only interested to know more about these replacement dials. I know the differences from the lesmala-website, but I've no information about the period, when these dials were produced and used.