Breitling Emergency Replica®

Breitlings own in-house Caliber 01 only in 2009

Many people have long waited for the first manufacture movement from Breitling and in 2009, their wait was finally over. Breitling launched the Caliber 01 in time for its 125th anniversary and this chronograph movement had a height of 7.2mm and a diameter of 30mm. It also had a rotor for the mainspring. A column wheel controls its functions and pushing a button would activate a vertical friction coupling that connects the chrono mechanism to the gear train. It had a power reserve of 70 hours and a patented self centering mechanism that can return the chrono’s hands to 0. It only had 346 components to make servicing easier. The balance spring as well as the Glucydur balance had a 4Hz frequency. The movement needed to pass all tests by the COSC before it could be housed in the Breitling Chronomat. It had an innovative regulator that can change the balance spring’s active length so the watchmaker can modify the rate to watch the preferences and habits of the wearer. The diver’s bezel can go around in just 1 direction and the push pieces as well as the crown is screwed.

Breitling is the only original watchmaker who certifies all movements at COSC. Nevertheless Breitling had no fully in-house made caliber up until 2009. Breitling used ETA and Valjoux movements that were modified by Breitling Chronometrie workshop to reach high standards of quality.

Breitling Models that use B 01 Caliber

Breitling's first proprietary Swiss-Made caliber was used in Chronomat 01 and 01 Limited Edition, Chronomat 41, 44, and 44 Limited Edition, the special Chronomat 44 Top Gun, Montbrillant 01, Navitimer Blue Sky, Transocean Chronograph, Montbrillant 01 Limited Edition, Navitimer 01 and Limited Edition and finally Transocean Chrono Limited.

Replica Breitling 01 Models with Swiss Made, Japanese and Chinese Movements

Most Swiss-Made Breitling replica watches use off the shelf Swiss ETA movements that are sold in bulk to manufacturers all over the world. When there is a shortage of ETA movements the manufacturer’s cah tap into Swiss made Sellita SW 200 automatic movement with 26 jewels. Another good option is using a Japanese Miyota movement for the replicas, but in this case the watch could end up with 6 beats per second (21,600 BPH) instead of the 8 beats (28,800 BPH) as the original. Still smooth and the difference is hard to notice, but you will know it is there. And yet another option is a Chinese made ETA clone movement like the Sea-Gull ST18 – a well-made ETA 2892-2 clone that is near a 1:1 copy from an established well known manufacturer.

ETA Movements and their Replicas:

ETA 2824-2

Automatic winding, twenty-five (25) jewel movement by ETA

Clones of 2824-2 include: 
• Swiss-Made Sellita SW200, Hangzhou HZ6300
• Chinese Sea-Gull ST21 and Shanghai Watch Factory clone movements.

ETA 2836-2 

Near-exact replicas are:
• Swiss Sellita SW220
• Chinese Hangzhou HZ6311 and a Sea-Gull ST21 variant

ETA 2892.A2

• Swiss manufacturer Valanvron assembles the parts from Chinese ST18 in Switzerland and sells the movement as Swiss Made Valanvron 92.
• Chinese Sea-Gull ST18 movement based on ETA 2892.A2 is a fully legitimate 1:1 copy of the 2892 movement as the original 2892 patent from 50th has long expired and other manufacturers are free to use and improve on the original design. Well-made ETA clone Sea-Gull ST18 movements are used in many replica watches.

Valjoux 7750 

The ETA 7750 also known as Valjoux 7750 is automatic winding 25 jewel chronograph movement, that can be modified to add triple date feature for day-date, month and moon phases or variation of two and three register models with totalizers or counters for minutes, seconds and hours.

Replica copies of 7750 are:
• Swiss-Made Sellita SW500
• Russian-Made Maktime 30664
• Chinese made various models of Liaoning Watch Factory and the Shanghai Watch Factory movements.