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HELP Mysterious 752-1= low cost Navitimer aborted project?
https://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=68705		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  saabreit [ Wed Apr 03, 2024 1:19 am ]
Post subject:  HELP Mysterious 752-1= low cost Navitimer aborted project?
5 DAYS , 108 VIEWS, 0 ANSWER, PLEASE HELP!!!

ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE WELCOME ABOUT THIS CHRONOGRAPH? SUPPOSED TO BE A L.G.BREITLING PROJECT WITHOUT COMMERCIAL FOLLOW, THEN ABORTED AND FURTHERLY RECYCLED BY SINN / OLLECH + WAJS / FRESARD AFTER 1979

Hi guys,

Long time without posting here !

After retiring mid 2017 I spent one fulltime year at school and got a watchmaker degree . It enabled me to service and restore my watches , starting with Valjoux 7733 and progressively going on Venus 175-178 and Chrono-Matic.

Retirement means more time and less money , so I have less vintage Breitling projects and more french chronographs - Yema, Lip, Herma.

Sometimes I accept to service a watch for a friend or another contact, and 3 weeks ago I received a strange vintage chronograph in need of a full service .

Problem with pics sizes , please see them on my post here
- https://montrespourtous.eu/viewtopic.ph ... a490991e6e


It is a chronograph in the Navitimer style with a sliderule rotating bezel , but dial is branded Fresard , who has been working as a subcontractor for assembly and service on Breitlings for a very long time .

The Valjoux 7734 - 45' caliber has a T4 - and not TJ - sip code .
The watch has a 3 parts case, midcase in chromed brass with interhorn 22mm , top loader , with bezel fixed by a wire spring , and snap on caseback .
The caseback is stamped swissmade - and reference 752-1 , no serial number . Inside face is mechanically engraved Ollech + Wajs Zurich

The bezel was blocked and fitted with a wrong crystal .... I replaced it by a Sternkreuz M 386 which is the correct one for a Navi 806 , and it perfectly fits.

A friend of mine owns a perfect clone with the same reference 752-1 and a similar dial stamped Sinn , that he got from Fresard . I also own a dial stamped Sinn bought from A.Wajs 10 years ago , and on both the Sinn logo is the pre 80 version .

At Sinn they were unable to give him any information.
Ollech & Wajs have no trace of this model,and unhappily it is too late to question Albert Wajs.
I contacted Fabrice Fresard , but his father passed 2 years ago and he does not remember anything about the model .

So what we know is that some parts came to Ollech & Wajs which engraved the inside face of casebacks but probably did not use those parts .
It is also probable that Sinn had some dials stamped ( I have one of those Sinn dials in my stock ) and some project watches but did not confirm them for a commercial version.
Fresard probably assembled a small batchwith their brandname. They worked for Breitling and for Sinn in the 80's , my friend spoke with a guy who worked at Fresard's during 20 years including this period , and he told him that it was a small war btw Breitling SA and Sinn about watches from the LG Breitling era .

The owner told me that this watch was owned by his father in law who was not a watch aficionado, so it is reasonable to think that a low price was the main reason for buying the watch,

Examining the construction , my gut feeling is that it was initialy designed by Breitling as a low cost version of Navitimer, with only 2 subdials+ date thanks to the reliable and affordable 7734 .
Pushers are the same seen on Breitling 2034 . Crystal is the 806 crystal . Bezel assembly is a mix btw Navi and Chronomat 808 , and the bezel base with sliderule directly painted and wirespring is simplified .

As far as I know, there is a gap in Breitling chronograph references , between 734 and 753 , so was this 752-1 born in L.G.Breitling design office or not ?

Who can help to solve this enigma?

ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE WELCOME ABOUT THIS CHRONOGRAPH? SUPPOSED TO BE A L.G.BREITLING PROJECT WITHOUT COMMERCIAL FOLLOW, THEN ABORTED AND FURTHERLY RECYCLED BY SINN / OLLECH + WAJS / FRESARD AFTER 1979
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