I believe they are still around and can be bought on Amazon etc.
Breil??? OK, a bit OT as they are/were a fashion brand and not really a WIS thing - but it occurred to me that I hadn't heard of them in a long time. A few years ago, there was a major marketing push, with expensive TV Ads, and sponsorship of the more glamorous parts of Motorsport, but now, its as if they never existed!
I know the collective answer will probably be 'who knows & who cares' but I'm slightly curious as to why they vanished, after all that money was spent.
I believe they are still around and can be bought on Amazon etc.
Saw some in shop in Penzance last year a couple of years earlier there were a few in the shop at lands end.
Paul.
They send to sponsor world superbiikes, whoever set pole got a watch. I bit like Tissot in MotoGP
My wife has quite a few items of their jewellery, they are quite distinctive and elegant. Because they are mainly stainless and plated, they are quite reasonably priced “fashion” jewellery that doesn’t fall to pieces. They have always been bigger on mainland Europe, and Italy especially.
They are pretty big on the internet.
But the watches, no.
They did indeed have a Ducati tie-in some years ago, but it was very unexciting I thought. They tried to move a bit upmarket with the Breil Milano line but I suppose the competition is hard in that bracket (€500 for quartz chronographs, around €1000 for auto divers) and I'm not sure how it worked out. Their standard line is doing OK judging by eBay ads, discounted but stable; I love their Porsche Design three-hander knock off, the TW1340, and I've had two Z960 Manta diver chronos for ages, but I get frustrated with how unfocused they are - decent retro designs are mixing indiscriminately with utterly forgettable contemporary stuff when they have so much heritage to reissue.
They are / were a strange brand. Known for fashion watches but they did make or rebrand a number of watches for the Italian military.
I think they had a tie in with Squalle back in the day (as did many manufacturers) to make cases. Some of their older watches are collectible.