I love these vintage Breitling watches. A joy to work on. This one was in quite a used condition as you can see from the initial picture I took:
As you may notice – it is a little scratched. Both chronograph pushers are missing. The glass is chipped and scratched. In a quite a sad shape really.
Opening up the watch reveals the lovely valjoux 7730 movement. First observation shows that it is in fairly grubby condition, but no surprise there.
I love this dial. Great classic Breitling look.
With the watch stripped to pieces we can see the watch has had contact with water. The setting lever and screw completely rusted solid. New ones ordered. In this case I also replaced the barrel bridge (the big part in the middle of the picture above) because it was moving side to side affecting the pitch of the wheels. Not good. Rust in the mainspring barrel is not good either so I replace the mainspring. Unfortunately a new barrel arbor is obsolete so I had to de-rust and polish the arbor.
After a full clean, replaced many parts, new case pushers and winding stem, new glass, case polish – the watch is now stunning.
Quite a satisfying piece to work on. The watch now keeps great time and should require a service every few years to maintain the seals and reduce wear on the parts.
