Vintage Breiting can easily be grouped into two categories: 1) Navitimers 2) Not Navitimers.
The Navitimer/Cosmonaute line is so fantastic that it often overshadows what else Breitling did back in the day. Their Top-Time was a nice, less expensive piece. Their world-timers replica watches uk were super duper cool, and their rattrapante duograph was cooler still. But, our favorite vintage Breitling was never sold at all – it was issued.
For years, Canada’s Air Force (RCAF) and Department of Defense (DND) was in the habit of ordering single-button chronographs from Omega, Lemania (who made movements for others), and Breitling. They were given to pilots and army folk often. But, Canadians, being the reasonable, pragmatic bunch they are, realized that if the average serviceman knew that he had just been given, say, an Omega or Breitling chronograph (both well known and well respected luxury watchmakers at the time), they might be tempted to sell it. And, if a serviceman’s friend, acquaintance, or schoolyard enemy saw a luxury watch like an Omega or Breitling on his wrist, he might be tempted to steal it.
So, both Omega and Breitling were in the practice of making these watches for the RCAF and DND with unsigned dials. This way, the average person (soldior or civilian) wouldn’t really know what exactly they were looking at – they were designed to be high performance but under the radar. So, then how, for example, do we know that the watch pictured above is actually a Breitling?
Because the movement looks like this:
and the case looks like this:
If you’re a vintage movement buff, you’ll know that the movement above is a Valjoux 23 modified into a mono-pusher. This movement features a 30 minute register and hacking seconds, like any good military watch. On the caseback, you’ll see original Department of National Defense issues numbers and a serial number ending with “/67” indicating the watch was produced in 1967.
These watches, both in the Omega and Breitling variants, are growing increasingly popular and valuable. There are a few reasons: they are undoubtedly real mil-spec watches, they come from legendary watchmakers, and both Omega and Breitling made very few one-button chronographs in their respective histories. The unsigned fake breitling watches are, in our opinion, the coolest because they are sleepers and closer to the original military specifications. Some of these watches were later modified with an “S” engraved on the caseback, we believe to mean “Surplus” and made with dials that read “Omega,” “RCAF,” or “Breitling.” An Omega RCAF one-button sold at Christies for over $14,000 in Geneva last November.
So, next time you’re looking at a mono-pusher chronograph with a totally blank dial at your local fleamarket, a replica watches uk vintage watch store, or even eBay, you might just be looking at a really cool and rare Omega or Breitling with military history.
