The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi guys,

Take a look at this 1942 vintage chronomat, apparently with a venus movement. The seller says the rotating bezel was lost and replaced with an aftermarket bezel and a new glass. So the watch is more of an Chrono, than chronomat. But other than that, does this piece look legit?
If so, how hard is it to come by an original rotating bezel for this watch? I've been searching around for a while, and I haven't seen one. I've seen that these pieces are pretty expensive, though this lacks the rotating bezel. What do you think is an appropriate price for this particular item?

EDIT: The seller claimed the movement is a Venus 175. And the model Ref. is 769.

Thanks a lot!

You need a picture of the back cover to see the proper reference marks and serial number. These come up all the time missing the bezel and I've never seen a bezel for sale separately. So, I think you might have a fun time trying to find one. Unfortunately it does impact the value considerably, probably 50-70%, imho, of what a complete, correct, watch would sell for in the same condition. You need to know the serial number too because the unmarked bridge is more likely in an earlier watch than a later piece. Then there are those hands....

nice dial, though ....

finding a bezel is (close to) impossible.

Dial is remarkably good - tough to understand why the original hands got trashed - they couldn't have been too bad with a dial like that.

Nice observations. I've seen a couple of these chronomatics with these (unoriginal, I presume) hands on chrono24. Strange.
I've asked the seller to send me a couple of photos on the case-back. Hopefully we'll see the ref number and a serial.

So what would you guys pay for this item in its current condition (with the hands and non-existent rotating bezel)? I actually don't have a clue.
It passed the 500 buck-line just now...

that would already be all the money for me....

Okey, so here's the case-back. The seller also included som ref-pics from some ad from the forties. Showing hands pretty much alike those on the watch, as well some other chronomat. There's clearly a difference between the seller's watch and the others shown on the pictures.
Well, I dunno...

case is 1945, so in line (though a bit late) for the unmarked bridge.
hands might be similar, but still wrong.

again, a 769 without the correct turning bezel is not really a 769, no matter how nice the dial is.

As Fred says, caseback reinforces that it's OK, but for me it's irrelevant at this point - if it's over $500 then any concept of value has gone - it's an incomplete watch and will remain that way for ever unless you are prepared a lot more than $500 (a LOT more) should a bezel ever appear on eBay.

Thanks for the expertise guys. Needless to say, I'm going to pass on this one.

was that listed on ebay ? will be interesting to see how high it goes, maybe somebody has that bezel lying around ....