Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Determine the Production Date of a Breitling Watch
THE PRODUCTION DATE FOR YOUR BREITLING WATCH CAN BE DETERMINE BY THE FOLLOWING TWO METHODS:
Dating by the Case:
The date your case was produced can be determined by a code located between the 6 O’clock lugs in newer Breitling models as shown in the picture of the 2006 Breitling Cockpit A49350 below.
The first two numbers represent the week and the next two represent the year. So, 0306B4 represents the 3rd week of 2006. It is unclear when Breitling began stamping their watch cases, but I have personally seen date stamps on some Windriders as early as 2001 and I suspect they started coding some as early as the year 2000. We are also unclear of what the B4 represents.
On some models, like the new Navitimer Montbrillant Legende, the case and bracelet are made to fit together, therefore, there is not enough space to stamp the production date between the lugs. As a result, the date stamp will be on the back of the bottom lug and not between them.
Dating by the Bracelet:
Similar to the code on the case, Breitling watches with metal bracelets have a date code located on the back of the top bracelet link, as shown in the photograph of the Breitling Chronomat GT below.
The date code is T4794 and the 47 stands for the 47th week of the year and 94 represents 1994. This only gives you the date the bracelet was produced not the date of the watch. The date on the bracelet and case can differ by many years. For example, the 1998 Chronomat GT has a 1994 pilot bracelet. Whether the previous owner bought the pilot bracelet and added it himself or it came from the factory that way, we do not know. I have seen many Breitling watches with conflicting case and bracelet date codes so never rely solely on the bracelet to accurately determine the age of your watch. Like the B4 on the date code on the case, we are unsure of what the letter or T on the bracelet code represents.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you have any information that can help everyone. I will gladly add your knowledge to my blog. Our goal is to help everyone understand their Breitling watches!
Dating by the Case:
The date your case was produced can be determined by a code located between the 6 O’clock lugs in newer Breitling models as shown in the picture of the 2006 Breitling Cockpit A49350 below.
The first two numbers represent the week and the next two represent the year. So, 0306B4 represents the 3rd week of 2006. It is unclear when Breitling began stamping their watch cases, but I have personally seen date stamps on some Windriders as early as 2001 and I suspect they started coding some as early as the year 2000. We are also unclear of what the B4 represents.
On some models, like the new Navitimer Montbrillant Legende, the case and bracelet are made to fit together, therefore, there is not enough space to stamp the production date between the lugs. As a result, the date stamp will be on the back of the bottom lug and not between them.
Dating by the Bracelet:
Similar to the code on the case, Breitling watches with metal bracelets have a date code located on the back of the top bracelet link, as shown in the photograph of the Breitling Chronomat GT below.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you have any information that can help everyone. I will gladly add your knowledge to my blog. Our goal is to help everyone understand their Breitling watches!
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