Breitling Bentley GT 45 (Green Dial) report

[rionrlty]

Hi All,

 

I just received this beauty from Ryan at Intime and thought I might give a revue.

 

Sometime back I had one of the first generation of these and it was a beautiful watch, but I was a little bothered by the inaccuracies on it.  Unlike that one, this version does have the ratchet assembly that turns the inner bezel without affecting the crystal, which remains stationary.  I’ve never felt a gen. bezel before, for comparison, but it seems to work fine in both directions.  It is a little harder to turn in a clockwise direction than in counter clockwise, but I’m pleased that it works as the gen. unlike the old one.  It’s a little spooky, almost like magic, when the outer and inner bezel moves without moving the crystal.

 

The older version had pointy ends on the lugs, but on the gen they are squared off slightly.  The beveled ends on this version may be squared off ever so slightly more than the gen., but it is hard to be sure from pictures.

 

From the QC pictures I had doubts about the red printing above the lower sub-dial.  Although they tried several times for a clear photo it still looked blurry and hard to read.  I’m pleased to report that it looks great to the naked eye, but you can see from the attached photos that I had trouble photographing it too.  It must be a problem with the camera’s ability to sort out the red on green color contrast.  The texture of the dial seems a close match to photos of gens I found on the net.  At first I was afraid the color of the green was too light, but since then I have found pictures on the net of two different colors of green, and this one closely matches the lighter one.  I believe Breitling might have altered the green color somewhere along the line during production, but I guess it could be the photography that makes it look different too.  It certainly is a nice color and I like it better than the darker versions I’ve seen photos of.  Many years back I had a gen. two-tone 39mm Chronomat, which had nearly the same color dial.

 

The bracelet is the best one I’ve seen yet on a Breitling rep.  I’ve done nothing to it and it feels supple and fluid just like a gen.  When the screws are tightened down it does not bind up, so I may not even Loctite the screws as I have on all my other Breitlings.  The only flaw involves the speed adjustment on the clasp, which is a product of the last link not being rounded off properly.  I would probably not use this feature anyway, but I will reshape it a little later on to get it working right.  On my older version the end links on the bracelet did not fit properly and stuck out at an angle different to the angle of the lugs.  I worked on it and made it fit better, but could never get it exactly right.  On this watch it fit perfectly right from the start as you can see in the pictures I’ve attached.

 

On this model the hands and markers are not bright steel color, but instead have a gunmetal tint.  This seems to match pictures of gens I’ve seen on the net.  Strangely, the maroon dial has bright silver as well as on the dark blue dial, but the lighter blue with the dial texture like this one, seems to have the gunmetal hands and markers as well.  I’m not sure why they alter it from one color to the next, but it looks fine and is easy to read, especially against the lighter colored sub-dials.  When the light hits them right, they reflect just like bright polished steel.

 

The AR seems typical of most recent Breitling reps and is very gen like IMHO.  The lume is bright and stays readable for hours, although like my Navitimer there are only small dots next to the markers.

 

In my opinion the only obvious tell is the incorrect hand on the subdial at 12.  Although it’s only a minor flaw if I can find one I intend to change it later to the correct shape, which has an arrow shaped tip. 

 

I am consistently amazed by how each generation of these reps keeps improving.  I’ve owned many gens over the years and IMHO they are getting remarkably near the quality of the gens, at least in appearance.  The back cover engraving on this model is especially nice. 

 

It reminds me of Japanese products back in the 1950’s.  At that time to say something was made in Japan was synonymous to labeling it cheap or poorly made.  Now they make some of the best quality products in the world.  Admittedly the Chinese are infringing on trademarks and manipulating the value of their currency, but so did Japan during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and still are to some extent.

 

[Rolexman]

Great write up. Always like your pictures!!!

[j.s.mccormack234@gmail.com]

Hi rionrity

Just been on the Intime site and this watch using your description

does not come up any ideas? We are talking about Intime.co aren't we.

Regards

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rionrlty]

Yes we are.  Here is a link to the listing.  If you have any trouble with it just go to the site, scroll down and select Breitling then scroll down to the second page and you will see it.

http://www.intime.co/breitling/2475-bentley-gt-bp-1-1-best-edition-ss-green-dial-on-ss-bracelet-on-a7750.html

 

[tvr123]

Many thanks rionrlty.