Pre-owned Brietling aerospace, good idea ?

[rs4al]

So following on from my missus looking at nice watches, got me started on looking myself.

Really love an Omega speecmaster moonwatch but the idea of a manual winder has me as the watch would be a daily and having to get up at oh my god o'clock sometimes means I need something a bit more reliable in the time stakes unfortunately, especially if I have forgotten to wind it the night before.

So have had a look at the aerospace, fits my puny wrist perfectly and the older 40mm case suits me better than the current evo model.

Have found this site, which have a lot of aerospaces on there amjwatches.co.uk and gave them a ring, they service them in house and install a new battery, also give them a years warranty. But it's not an official Brietling service and considering the age of the watch I'm looking at, it will probably need an official service, which ain't cheap.

[mikeveal]

An official service does nothing that a competent watch maker can not do. Strip, clean, rebuild and oil. New seals, pressure test, return to sender.
The difference is simply that the official service will cost an absolute minimum of four times as much as an indy service.

Repairs are a different ball game due to the supply (or lack of supply) of ETA parts.

[rs4al]

Thanks, is an 11yr old Quartz a good idea though ?

[GC8]

Ted Theodore Logan's watch needed winding every day, but an Omega Speedmaster will not.

[rs4al]

I was told by the chap in watches of swiizzleland, that a speed master would need winding every two days, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Variomatic]

rs4al said:

Thanks, is an 11yr old Quartz a good idea though ?

My daily is a 37 year old quartz, it keeps time to better than 0.1 s/day and I expect it to outlast me.

Despite the popular perception there's no reason that a quality quartz movement shouldn't last as long as a mechanical, barring mishandling or leakage (water or battery).

If electronics are going to fail they tend to do so in their first 2 - 3 years of use and the mechanical side suffers a lot less from wear than a mechanical because (a) the force from a stepper motor is tiny compared to a mainspring, and (b) even that tiny force is only applied for a millisecond or so at a time each time it ticks.

That means for every year in use the gears in a quartz movement are only transmitting that (greatly reduced) force for maybe 10 hours - the rest of the time they're sitting completely unloaded. So wear is essentially non-existent.

[traffman]

For my engagement. My wife purchased a Breitling Aerospace from a Jewellers in Buchannan St Glasgow back in 2001.
It was my first proper watch.

Allways wanted one. I still admire it. Its been back for a service about 3 times now.

Keeps superb time. If you use the functions a fair bit be prepared to have the batt replaced a wee bit more than usual.
But nothing too out the ordinary.
A beautiful watch. And it cost 1275.00 back then.
And they go for pretty much that pre owned.
Regards P

[marcosgt]

rs4al said:

Thanks, is an 11yr old Quartz a good idea though ?

I've got a 14 year old Breitling B-1, (touch wood) runs like a train and looks like new.



M.

[toasty]

My Aerospace is 20 next year. It's survived daily abuse, 3 or 4 new batteries and an attempted theft in Marrakech.

It's a great functional watch, I use the countdown timer and alarm regularly and it's very light to wear.

Probably because it's moulded to my wrist over the years but no other watch feels as comfortable on the wrist.

I very much doubt you'd be disappointed with a preowned one.

That said, I'd quite like an Omega Moonwatch too.

[rs4al]

Found an unworn aerospace avantage and hopefully when it turns up it will be a bargain

[rs4al]

Watch arrived today, brand new aerospace avantage, don't know how Chronext did it for the price I've paid but very pleased, managed to get a titanium professional II bracelet as well off bay of the e.