The 1960's Breitling Day Date

When one thinks of the day-date complication in watches, most collectors minds immediately go to the Rolex Day-Date, typically the reference 1801, nicknamed the Rolex President. This is the natural thought when thinking about watches with this complication because of its desirable design and impeccably produced movement. Many other brands produced similar complicated watches during the same era. Breitling had their hat in the ring, with a relatively affordable version of the complication.

The reference 2528 was produced in the 1960’s by Breitling. The watches came in a round, cushioned case, in this version in stainless steel. Similarly to the Day-Date from Rolex, the watch also came with a fluted bezel, making it feel just a bit more on the dressy side. The sunburst grey dial of the version we are looking at today obviously has a nice appeal to it, mainly for how it looks different in varying lights and environments. The watch has gold applied hour markers that definitely give the dial a bit of a ‘pop’, being that the dial and case are very similar in tone.

The day-date complication has many different configurations. Some brands opt to have the day and date next to each other at 3 o’clock, making it very legible and easy to read. Breitling opted to place the complications at 6 o’clock and stake them on top of one another. The day of the week wheel has a curved window, integrated the day of the week with the lines of the rest of the watch. On this version, the day of the week is written in Spanish, being one of the languages Breitling used. Other versions have been found with day of the week wheels in English, German and French. The square date window is very similar to how other brands configure the date.

The obvious discussion should be about the movement. The watch is running on the caliber 4009 automatic movement. The movements were produced by Felsa and purchased by Breitling. Felsa was founded in Grenchen in 1918, and then purchased by Ebauches SA in 1928 who produced many movements for some of the top brands in Switzerland. It was a common practice for Swiss brands to buy high quality movements from large manufactures; this watch being a good example of this practice. The 4009 was modified by Breitling to fit the needs of their vision for the refence. Some other brands used the Incabloc movement but had the day and date at different positions on the dial.

Now obviously with the fluted bezel the watch can feel a bit more on the dressy side, especially with the gold-tone hour markers. The watch comes on a black NATO strap which actually looks quite good with the watch, running on the line of making the dressy, casual.

The watch is available on our store here.

Enjoy!