Sometimes, we are very tempted to send a watch back, rather than attempt to repair it. The risk for us is pretty high, as we don’t charge for unsuccessful repairs, so we can get stuck with hours and hours spent on a watch without getting any money for our work.
This Breitling looked a bit challenging of first sight …The next challenge was to open the case back. Ray told me that the watch had been with Breitling for an estimate, but I couldn’t get the case back open… I have the normal Breitling dies with an odd number of corners, but this one had an even number. £50 later, I had the right die.
You can see that I’m not the first one trying to open the case!
This does not bode well. There is a lot of rust on the chronograph bridge, and you can see some below the start/stop lever as well.
I take the lever out, and there is even still some water in there. If I hadn’t invested £50 in the case opener die, I would probably send the watch back, but also, I do like a challenge, and this is a nice watch with a nice movement.
The dial looks nice for its age.
The 7740 has a date, and a quite peculiar sub-second construction.
I remove the chronograph parts.
Down to the base movement. No more rust here.
The intermediate wheel has some rust at the bottom, but as it’s easily available, I order a new one.
The movement will also get a new mainspring.
The hour wheel has some corrosion as well. To the right of the hour wheel sits the little wheel that drives the centre second pinion (removed in this photo), which sits just above the wheel in the little hole that you can see.
The bottom plate comes apart, and I’m ready for cleaning.
All the parts ready to be put back together.
And the base movement is beating. Note the hollow screw of the crown wheel – the minute recorder goes through it.
Very nice performance, and what you would expect from a Valjoux.
Now I can put the chronograph back together.
I couldn’t find new original screws for the chronograph bridge, so the old ones go back in. They have been cleaned and won’t cause any harm. If new screws can be obtained, they can be changed later without any problems.
The bottom plate back together.
The orange hands all need some new paint.
The dial goes onto the movement.
I’ve cleaned the case thoroughly in the ultrasonic cleaner, and removed the pushers and cleaned them separately.
The movement goes back into the case.
Final check and adjustment of the chronograph.
Now the new crystal goes back on.Great looking watch.
On it’s bracelet, a real stunner.
Now for some testing. For the chronograph, it’s best to run it against a stop watch, as any problems with the minute and hour recorders will show up that you otherwise wouldn’t detect. And I wanted to show off my lovely Junghans stop watch with 1/10s function 😉
It went to Breitling for an estimate… and still came back with water in it? Seems strange any watchmaker wouldn’t let it dry out before returning it – even if the client didn’t want to proceed with the quoted work?
The watch back was shut so tight that I almost couldn’t open it. My guess here is that Breitling did an estimate without opening the watch.
The click does not allow the crown/ratchet wheel to be turned CCW – is this correct? Thanks, Craig
You can turn the crown both ways.
I am working on the exact same chronograph. Is it correct that you can only turn the crown CW? The click as it is does not allow the crown/ratchet wheel to be turned CCW. Is this correct? Thanks, Craig
PS – this one also had water damage so the cannon pinion and hour wheel had to be replaced.
Lovely transformation. Love when you say “challenge accepted”!
Movement looks a bit like the Hamilton/Buren/Heuer/Breitling Cal 11…
Well spotted! the chronograph is exactly the same, but the Buren 11 is put on top of a Buren movement, so the movement below is completely different.
Not normally a fan of Breitling watches but this is one I would love to own!
Is the bracelet after market? I don’t think Breitling would have left the bracelet proud of the watch case like that!??
Lol – that was my bad. The bracelet was on the wrong way around 😉
Wow! That cleaned up really well! Beautiful watch!!
Did you end up repainting the orange hands?
Yes, all three orange hands were repainted.
These sort of sub-dials always remind me of the old gallon petrol pumps when I was a kid. So had someone attempted to use it as a dive watch? The water seems to have got in around the pusher?