Breitling Datora 785 Valjoux 72C Rose Gold

cruvon shares his challenging yet rewarding journey of acquiring a 1946 Breitling Datora with a Valjoux 72C movement. This post highlights the complexities of authenticating vintage triple date chronographs, a segment notorious for 'frankenwatches,' and emphasizes the importance of thorough research and expert consultation. His experience underscores the thrill of the hunt and the value of community in vintage collecting.

I had been looking for a vintage triple date, with a  Valjoux 72C and square pushers from any nice historic brand for quite some time. But finding one that was both appealing but at the same time at a justifiable price point, to me, was very challenging. I looked high and low till I came across this untouched beauty a dealer had with a dial I could adore. It came from an Italian collection in all original  "barn find" condition and  stunningly pretty for it's age.

Delving deeper into triple dates, particularly seeking to authenticate this one, I soon discovered that sourcing and  authenticating  one can be  quite a mine field and an experience in itself. Triple dates with widely used third party movements  from the less popular brands are quite easily frankened into all kinds of mish mashes, ending up as franken or fake Rolexes, Breitlings, etc.and no brands are spared, they read like a who's who of the vintage triple date world. These then get sold as "rare once off versions" or "rare watch that belonged to the king of Jordan"" for example, the chances of getting badly burnt are pretty much very high moreso for those who buy them without doing thier research. Plus price is not necessarily a deciding factor when judging originality on triple dates of this vintage because looking up sites like chrono24 for example, just typing in "Breitling Datora  785", there come up with quite a few frankened watches at unethical price points and from sellers true collectors in the vintage community know as Franken masters.

So came the exciting part that's the biggest adrenalin rush to every collector, like a hunter zeroing in on the "right" kill, all ready for the hunt. Countless threads and mails and consultations later with all the Breitling experts I could muster, I finally decided to take the plunge on this all original beauty. The hunt was offcourse a big part of the pleasure. Then the learning on how the movement for this period and Breitling reference needs to be unsigned, that there were quite a few subtle dial variations on  these depending on the dial maker they were sourced from, that these also came with a Venus movement variant, and a myriad of other little details that one can fathom only by experience and learning. Sourcing it from a foreign land was another challenge and a kind gentleman and popular collector  who I knew through another forum kindly offered to act as a intermediary on the deal for me, goes to show that this hobby of ours is not just about the watches but great friendships too.

 Next came the servicing, found a repairer famed for his vintage Breitling repair skills who send me some pictures of the innards’ of my watch, even sent me back a  mainspring  on my watch that needed replacement and that hadn't been changed for decades, wow. He also took off some grime from the dial face and a stain at the 12 O Clock area, uncovering it's true beauty but ensuring that the dial remained original to the core.

Some statistics

Year: 1946, Serial 64438X
Case and Case material: 18kt Rose Gold with square pushers, case back inner and outer markings correct.
Dial face and hands : Creamy satin look dial  with applied gold markers, stick hands with red pointer Date hand.
Complications: Chrono functions and Day, date, Year and  time.
Possible markets: It has a French week/year wheel so had to be for the French market or for French speaking countries. Not being a native French speaker, I have a little table mapping  the days of the week and months from French to English, always good to learn a new language.
Movement: Valjoux 72C

Here's some before and after pictures for your enjoyment, the first 10 or so pictures are "Before" pictures . The "After" pictures also feature the original Advertisment of the watch from "The Breitling Book" by Benno Richter, a book which though not uptodate andnot  always correct on some counts, is the best reference that vintage Breitling collectors have at the moment. Also a picture of the mainspring and the watch taken apart for servicing. I can only imagine the feelings of the original owner walking out of the AD in 1946 with thisbeauty  strapped on his wrist.  Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do and apologies if I have posted too many pictures of it!