Older Breitling SuperOcean rep.

[rionrlty]

Breitling SuperOcean, 42mm model introduced sometime between 2000 and 2003.  

 

The subject of this post is a Breitling SuperOcean watch that I purchased sometime after the year 2000.  I’m quite certain that it was over 10 years ago now.

 

I have Breitling catalogues for years 1994, 1999, and 2003.  The SuperOcean was not offered in 1994 but its beginnings can be seen in the quartz Shark of that year that was good for 300m in depth.  Please note that all photographs are of my rep SuperOcean.  The artist renditions are copied from the Breitling catalogue.

 

In my 1999 catalogue there are two SuperOceans listed, the standard one good for 1,000m in depth, and the Professional, which was rated at 5,000m.  Both of these were equipped with helium release valves located on the side of the case at 10 o’clock.

 

By 2003 the Professional seems to have been dropped and the standard SuperOcean was now rated at 5,000m and included a release valve.  Official dimensions were stated as 41.5mm in diameter, and 14.90mm thickness.  All could be equipped with the Professional bracelet as pictured on this example.

 

I should mention here that there were significant changes made in the model from 1999 to2003 as can be seen in the pictures above from the catalogues.

 

In the early 2000s there were not many accurate reps once you got out of the Rolex brand.  When I purchase this watch I already owned two blue dialed gen. SuperOceans and was curious how this one would stack up against them.  In the pictures it looked great.

 

One of the two SOs that I owned was probably from the era prior to 1999.  The other was a later watch made sometime between 1999 and 2003.

 

The most obvious differences between these to gens was that the earlier model had a much more rounded lug shape with no sharp lines.  It also had only 3 lines of script below the center of the dial.  SuperOcean, Automatic, and the depth rating.  In addition the back cover was not the decahedron shape that required a special tool to open it.  I believe it had small holes for a case opening tool instead, but it could have been slots.

 

The Other gen had much more angular lugs, similar to the subject rep.  The script under the center now had 4 lines and read:  SuperOcean, Chronometre, Automatic and a 4th line contained the depth rating.

 

The subject of this post was extremely close to the later model gen.  I’ve only been able to spot a few flaws, which would probably be considered extreme compared to today’s super reps, but at the time purchased it was not easy to tell the rep from the gen laying side by side on the desk.

 

A list of the flaws that I’ve spotted are as follows:

-Lume panels in the hands are slightly different dimensions than on the gen.  It’s a very small discrepancy and hard to spot.

-Color of the dial was very slightly different that the gen.  At the time I thought the gen might have faded slightly with use, because the earlier watch matched pretty closely.

-Although the crown is of the same size, the knurls were slightly finer than the gen.  Also the ‘B’ symbol was smaller on the rep.

-Unlike most Breitling reps of the era the engraving on the back cover was very deep and looked almost identical to the gen., but the serial number is missing.

-The bracelet was a near duplicate, it has smaller screws than current models holding the adjustment links, but was a close match to the gen., which also had smaller screws (the earlier model bracelet was assembled with push pins).  Also, while the markings on the clasp were engraved instead of laser etched like most Breitling reps at the time, they were not as deep as the gen.  Also the stamping on the clasp hinge, while as deep as the gen., lacked the Breitling stamping on the narrow part of the Hinge.

-While the Lume is adequate, it is not great on the rep.  However it was slightly better than the gen.

-Also, I don’t know if it has AR at all, but I could tell no difference between the rep and the gen in this respect.

-Although I have never opened the watch I’m sure that it has a Chinese 17j or 21j, but it keeps excellent time and has never missed a beat.  It has been one of my favorite Breitling reps and I have worn it quite a lot  

 

Sadly the gens have both gone on to new other homes long ago, so no comparison can be shone now.  I am including scans of the pictures from the Breitling Catalogues to compare to.

 

Please feel free to comment or point out features that I’ve missed.  Also I’d like to solicit opinions on value of the watch should I decide to sell it.

Thanks all