Hi Forum! I was hoping the Breitling experts here could help me answer a question. I have a Breitling Cosmonaute 81600, steel case, gold bezel, that I've dated c. 1988. The case has definitely been polished at some point in the past as can be deduced by some rounding of the bevels, but overall it looks quite nice with the gold bezel. I'm thinking of sending it in to Breitling for a complete service, and was considering having them return the case to its original condition, but the question is - what would be original condition for a Cosmonaute of that era? Brushed case or polished? Google tells me newer Cosmonautes were polished and older ones (c. 1960) were brushed, but I can't seem to find anything about this particular era. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

Polished I believe, top and sides.

 

Thanks, buddman. The back is definitely brushed, but every other surface is polished.

 

Also I wouldn’t send to Breitling. Find a specialist case restorer to put your bevels back.

 

Thanks for the tip on sending back to Breitling. Their website says they have a polishing service, but I guess they don't do that kind of restoration?

 

Mark Heist is very well-known for restoring vintage Breitling.
https://horologicalservices.com

 

Thanks, Dan!

 

I second Mark Heist. Had a twin jet 806 restored by him and it was impeccable.

 

I think Mark will only do a full restoration including movement service..

 

They’ll polis, but that’s different than trying to restore the original lug edges.

 

The OP mentioned that he wants a complete service anyway.

 

Sorry missed that!

 

Thanks all for the great advice, will definitely reach out to Mark!

 

Just to close the loop on this, I reached out to Horological Services to see what they could do. Theresa responded to me promptly saying that the reference 81600 and 81610 are the only two vintage Breitling models they no longer service due to the many different executions and the headaches these variations cause when ordering parts from Breitling Switzerland. She advised me to send the watch to Breitling Switzerland, but did confirm that in their experience they've only seen complete polished cases. This leads me to believe that the polished case on mine is correct, but the re-polish job done at some point in the past wasn't the best, hence the rounding of the bevels.

Thanks to everyone for the help and advice!

 

Attach a photo . It will be interesting to have a conversation.

 

Here's a few:

 

If a layman was polishing, he did not observe the geometry of the case.

 

Bought it from an online dealer, so unclear who did the polishing and when..