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Wow thats a great looking watch now, not worth the money spent, but worth every penny as a project. Hats off to you and Brendan.
Having sold my Top Time a couple of years ago I have had a hankering for another Breitling. Back in July I saw one appear on eBay. From the photos that accompanied the listing it had clearly seen better days:
However not being the kind of person to turn down a challenge I made an offer which was then accepted. The watch arrived a few days later and, upon inspection, it was in even worse condition than I had anticipated.
The watch had clearly been designed as an anniversary piece, as the case back was engraved with the logo of Seyntex - the Belgian military textile manufacturer – together with the dates 1908-58, which ties in with the founding of the company and its 50th anniversary.
Despite the poor condition I still liked the look of the watch, particularly as it had an unusual waffle dial with internal minute markers picked out in silver, together with stylized numerals and chunky hour markers. The movement was an FHF27, and a little research before making the offer had turned up the fact that Breitling used these movements during the 40’s and 50’s. Whether this is the reason behind the use of FHF movement I am not sure, but Landeron - who held a number of Breitling patents - merged with FHF in 1925. Google turned up a few simple, similar, three-hander Breitling watches using FHF movements.
Having used Brendan on numerous occasions to both service and restore some of my watches, I sent the Breitling off to him to get his opinion. A few days later Brendan got in touch, asking if I wanted to have the dial restored as he had a batch of other dials being sent to his restorer in Switzerland. Although generally I like original dials this one was too far gone in my opinion, and even with the movement back in working condition I’d find it hard to wear the watch with the dial in its current state. So I asked Brendan to remove the dial and send it off for restoration.
That was the good news – the bad news arrived a few days later when I received an email from Brendan telling me that the movement was rusty.
Brendan had kindly put some feelers out to source a donor movement with his contacts in Switzerland, but I had a look on eBay and found a working FHF27 movement in Italy.
A couple of clicks and it was on its way. Two weeks later the movement arrived and it was forwarded in to Brendan.
Sadly worse news was to come. Brendan emailed me to say that the replacement FHF27 had a chamfered main plate, so wouldn’t fit the Breitling case. Even more depressing, the dial pins in the original movement had rusted, and so the dial couldn’t be removed for restoration.
There remained two options – first, diamond drilling around the original dial foot on the old movement plate and replacing it after the dial had been restored, and second, using an entirely new Breitling dial. However this was all beginning to sound a little extreme, and I even mentioned to Brendan that this now had all the hallmarks of turning out like Trigger’s broom – with nothing left of the original watch other than the case back!
I asked Brendan for his honest advice – and as I had expected he told me to bin it. We agreed by mutual consent that the watch was a lost cause, and I wrote off to experience the cost of the watch and Brendan’s services to date.
You can imagine my surprise, therefore, when in the middle of September an email appeared in my inbox from Brendan with a photo of the naked FHF27 movement.
I had thought the watch was history, but Brendan is clearly not one to be defeated and had persevered and managed to remove the dial. The movement was beyond hope, other than as a source for some component parts, but as luck would have it there was a Venus watch with a suitable FHF27 movement on eBay for £17. It was purchased and then forwarded on to Brendan who, in the meantime, had sent the dial off to Switzerland. The replacement movement arrived and Brendan confirmed that, unlike the Italian version, the movement from the Venus watch would be suitable for the Breitling:
Fast forward to last week and Brendan emailed me to say that the dial had returned.
In the intervening period he had restored the case back, so all that remained was to assemble the component parts.
A day later he emailed me the photos of the completed watch.
Then last Friday the postman knocked on the door and passed me a package.
Unwrapping the watch I couldn’t believe the transformation. With the miserable weather at the moment I have only had the opportunity to take one quick wrist shot of the watch, but the dial restoration is superb. The minute markers catch the light and sparkle like tiny diamonds, set into that beautiful linen dial. It is really quite mesmerising.
Does the watch justify the money spent on it? Highly unlikely, but then it was bought as a project, not as an investment. The dial has been restored and the movement is not 100% original, but the fact of the matter is that it is now back in working order, keeping perfect time, and I have the pleasure of another vintage watch that stands out from the crowd. Serendipitously I also have a presentation in Belgium this week, so no guesses as to which watch will be on my wrist and making its return to the land of the company whose anniversary it originally celebrated.
A massive vote of thanks to Brendan for the work he has done to get the watch back up and running. Having reconciled myself once to scrapping the watch I can only thank him again for not accepting defeat. To my eyes the finished watch has turned out beautifully.
Last edited by willie_gunn; 24th November 2019 at 18:32.
Wow thats a great looking watch now, not worth the money spent, but worth every penny as a project. Hats off to you and Brendan.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Absolutely stunning watch fantastic work from Brendan. It was worth all the time and effort. Fantastic result
I love to see things like this happen. A fantastic job and a nice looking watch.
That's a nice looking watch, great dial restoration. Must be very satisfying to own and wear.
+1. That is staggering, and the finished watch is absolutely gorgeous.
Very nice, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your amazing informative post WG.
I must admit, I wasn't expecting the movement to be a block of rust, however you managed to find a better one when I couldn't and paved the way for it's restoration.
This is what l love about watchmaking. A combined effort can bring back the dead !
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That really is an astounding restoration. Hats off for the commitment to getting it sorted.
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A phenomenal job! Well worth it.
If anyone has questions about Brendan’s work, this should answer it.
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