Vintage watches

Three different things go by the name Vintage: Bell & Ross's Vintage line, Laco's Vintage models, and a handful of older Breitling references.

Bell & Ross built its Vintage line from its own early Geneva and Officer models. The Vintage BR 123 and BR 126 Heritage, shown at Baselworld 2010, took their cases from the Geneva 123 and 126: the BR 123 is a 41 mm three-hand automatic on an ETA 2892, the BR 126 a chronograph on a modified ETA 2894. The BR 123 GMT and BR 126 GT go up to 42 mm and the BR 123 Golden Heritage to 43 mm. The Falcon versions of both were limited to 500 pieces each, and the BR 126 Insigna came in four national versions, coded ES, FR, UK and US, of 99 pieces each. In 2017 a third generation made the cases smaller and slimmer: the BR V1 at 38.5 mm, the 41 mm BR V2-92 with a 60-minute rotating bezel, and the BR V2-94 chronograph with a fixed tachymeter bezel, both V2s rated to 100 m.

The Vintage WW1 is a different shape altogether: lugs made like wire handles and soldered to the case, under a domed crystal. Most WW1 cases are 45 mm; the manual-wind Argentium is 41 mm.

Laco, founded in Pforzheim in 1925, was one of the five makers of B-Uhren observation watches for the Luftwaffe. Its Vintage models run from 34 to 42 mm: the Vintage 34.0, Absolute, Bordeaux, Vancouver and Used Look. The Breitlings are the Navitimer Big Case 1806, including an Iraqi Airforce version, and the Chronomat Big Case 1808, both 49 mm with slide-rule bezels and acrylic crystals, plus a 38 mm yellow gold Chrono-Matic 2116.