Breitling watches

colman1212

I really want to buy a good watch at the moment and love the breitling range. Currently living in oz though and the one I want is like 9500 dollars which seems crazy. I'd probably spend up to about 3 grand on a good watch. Anyone know where is the best place to get one? I travel quite a bit so could look at stopping off in some random country on the way home next time I'm going if they had good deals....

Cyrus

any idea which model you like?

heathrow is a decent spot for watches, vat free, altho you should be able to get 15-20% off most breitlings anyway in an ADs

bogmanfan

If you're willing to buy used, then you'll save a lot. Breitlings don't hold their value particularly well, so you can easily pick up a mint used one for half the price of new. I always try to let someone else take the depreciation hit

maddragon

The wife bought me a secondhand one on eBay 3 years ago for 600eur. I haven't taken it off since. Pool sauna everything. Its as good as new. Can't remember the exact model but I recall they are about 2500eur new. I could never afford that for a watch and if I could I would only wear it on special occasions. Buying second hand is the best of both worlds.

colman1212

The one i want is attached. Why do breitlings not hold their value? Do Tag hold value better? I dont have a clue about watches to be honest (other than I like expensive ones!!) Id be afraid to buy one off ebay incase its a fake. So many fake watches going around, and they look the same until they break.

bogmanfan

I think that model is the Transocean Chronograph. I don't know the new price, but I think a secondhand one sold on tz-uk for about £2.5k last year. You're right to be wary of eBay etc as there are a lot of fakes floating around and the major advantage of buying new at an authorised dealer is you can be sure you're getting the genuine article.
With the exception of Rolex and Panerai, all other prestige brands will take a big hit if bought new. Of course if you plan to keep the watch for a long time, then that's not a major concern.

maddragon

With eBay you have to buy off a seller that has at least 95% positive feedback and has been selling for a few years. I got my watch checked by a jeweller and it's genuine although it would have been too late to do anything about it if it wasn't.

colman1212

Yeah... I don't think I'd fork out 3-4k online for a watch thats probably going to be real. I'd have to be 100% to be honest. Just because you have no come back if its dodgy... You'll probably be fine 95 percent of the time but I wouldnt take the chance personally.

Wibbs

colman1212 wrote: »

The one i want is attached. Why do breitlings not hold their value? Do Tag hold value better?

Not really. I think both are victims of their own success, so they're quite common on the second hand market. They're considered a bit too "popular" among watch nuts. A bit too "fashion". TAG have been a bit too "in the moment" fashion wise in their recent years. Snooty oh god yes, but somewhat true. A 1960's Heuer is 9 times outa 10, more timeless looking than a 2000'a TAG Heuer.

Their advertised history and cache is a little overdone. This goes triple for Breitling. Their constant refs to leadership in aviation is just a tad hyped up and pretty inaccurate. IWC, Zenith, Longines to name but three have much more extensive histories regarding aviation. Longines alone have an aviation history that Breitling could only dream of, yet most normal, not in need of meds and care in the community non watch nuts,:D wouldn't equate Longines with that. Breitling came late to the game in many ways. Much less so with Heuer, they have a pretty damn cool history with regard to chronographs and flight and motor racing and general sport timing.

Real watch nuts in my experience tend to only want very specific Breitling models and ditto for TAG. The vintage nuts tend to avoid any TAG branded models at all and go for the earlier more desirable Heuer before the TAG bit was added.

colman1212

Thanks buddy, Great post, Yeah the Tag watches have become a bit common, and it has turned me off them a little bit. There's something a little classy about the breitling watches that I like. What is the story with the fredrique constant watches? I've seen a few nice ones of these. Are they considered a good watch?

Blackpitts

Wibbs wrote: »

Not really. I think both are victims of their own success, so they're quite common on the second hand market. They're considered a bit too "popular" among watch nuts. A bit too "fashion". TAG have been a bit too "in the moment" fashion wise in their recent years. Snooty oh god yes, but somewhat true. A 1960's Heuer is 9 times outa 10, more timeless looking than a 2000'a TAG Heuer.

but which brand does hold its value today? only Rolex and PP, maybe AP.
is it a coincidence that they all have their own in-house movement? I don't think so.
Most of the Breiltings still mounts a valjoux 7750 and they are priced 4 or 5 times more than an equivalent watch (ie Hamilton).
Perhaps this is why Breitling is now working on in-house movement. although the prices are sky-rocketing as a consequence of that.

colman1212

Prob a stupid question but what you mean by in-house movement?

MiCr0

a movement made by the brand themselves, rather than buying a movement ready made (for example from ETA, which supplies many different movements to many watch companies)

Cyrus

Blackpitts wrote: »

but which brand does hold its value today? only Rolex and PP, maybe AP.
is it a coincidence that they all have their own in-house movement? I don't think so.
Most of the Breiltings still mounts a valjoux 7750 and they are priced 4 or 5 times more than an equivalent watch (ie Hamilton).
Perhaps this is why Breitling is now working on in-house movement. although the prices are sky-rocketing as a consequence of that.

panerais hold their value well too and the base models have eta movements?

Conversely Jaeger depreciate a lot and all are in house

I think the main reason that the second hand value of tag and breitling (in most cases but not all) drops so much is the fact that savvy buyers can generally get a decent discount on them from new, so the RRP is in a lot of cases a false base to compare the second hand value too.

Compare that to rolex and panerai, where discounts are a lot harder to achieve

Blackpitts

Cyrus wrote: »

panerais hold their value well too and the base models have eta movements?

Conversely Jaeger depreciate a lot and all are in house

I think the main reason that the second hand value of tag and breitling (in most cases but not all) drops so much is the fact that savvy buyers can generally get a decent discount on them from new, so the RRP is in a lot of cases a false base to compare the second hand value too.

Compare that to rolex and panerai, where discounts are a lot harder to achieve

obviously it's not only a matter of having or not an in-house movement, marketing is playing a huge role too.
Getting a discount for a PAM is more difficult than Rolex; the first is producing only batches of 1500/2000 pc per year for the base model, the second is close to 1 million pc...this makes PAMs relatively harder to find so second hands keep their value. Furthermore Panerai has this huge historic background that has been pumped up by their advertisment campaigns.
Let's say that the winning mix is marketing + technology

colman1212

What kind of percentage discount can you look for? Like 10 percent or something?

Cyrus

colman1212 wrote: »

What kind of percentage discount can you look for? Like 10 percent or something?

i have heard that 25 percent can be achievable on certain models, 10 would be an absolute minimum

Doc Daneeka

Cyrus,

You mention heathrow earlier in the thread. Presumably the likes of Watches of Switzerland in T1 which is kind of tax free price... is it possible to look for discount there?

Doc.

Bullseye1

According to the guys on TZUK you can negotiate discounts at T1.