that's an interesting story, Alex, and you are lucky to have recovered this one. maybe when it is visiting from the bank vault, you could share a photo?

so here is mine with some "stolen and recovered" story.

when I bought this one, there was some delay in my receiving the watch. seller explained that it hade been stolen from his house, after I had sent the money. then, amazingly, it had been recovered in a group of stolen watches, at a local pawn shop!! how lucky for both of us!!

when I received the watch, it was a disaster . . . hardly ran at all. I suspect that, rather than being stolen and recovered, the watch was in the hands of a watchmaker who was having trouble getting it right. so the story of the theft and miraculous recovery was probably just a story.

now, after a complete overhaul ($$$) and a subsequent adjustment ($$), it has been running very well. whether the ghosts were from the pawn shop or the unskilled watchmaker, all is well at the moment.

Jeff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: In 1988 when I finished my A-Class I purshased
: myself a Breitling Chronomatic. At this
: point Breitling only had three models: all
: the same Chr0nomatics, one in SS one in
: bicolor one in full gold version. They just
: came up from a nearly bankrupt time and so
: the SS watch was pretty cheap at 2000 German
: Marks = 1000 Euro = 1300 USD. I purshased
: this watch as a sort of a memory regarding
: my father who died in 1978 with a breitling
: at his wrist.

: Worn the watch over 5 years I gave it to my
: mother and she placed it in our bankers
: safe.

: 10 years later I asked her to pull it out from
: bank and bring it to me to my birthday. She
: brought the watch at here home but I forgot
: to take the watch with me and as she is 300
: miles away I thought : OK I will pick it up
: next time.

: However when I asked her to send the the watch
: to me, the watch was disapperead. We both
: runned into a huge discussion, but the watch
: was mysterically gone.

: About 2 years later the cellars of the house
: where my mother is living was broken open
: and everything was gone. The stole what ever
: things from ALL cellars in the house. During
: the police interview my mother mentioned the
: mysterical disappearance of the Breitling
: Chrono. The police officer said, that they
: think a couple moved 5 years into the house
: was responsible for the cellar thing: as
: they found fingerprints at each cabin.
: Police officer went to these guys and just
: mentioned the breitling story 2 years back.

: 3 days later my mother opened the post box and
: the plain watch was in there...full bracelet
: length 8.5 inch included, which surprised me
: as this huge wrist is not very common... and
: when somebody keep a stolen watch for more
: than 2 years you could think he wears the
: watch - or not?

: So what happened: two yeas ago my mother gave
: the key to thes brave couple for taking care
: of the garden and flowers....and they stole
: the watch...the left all the jewlery behind:
: just the mens watch they stole.

: Now the watch is in my own bankers safe. I
: never thought to get it back after it was
: gone...Interestingly the same model is now
: worth 6500 euro = 8000 USd.

: I defenitley dont care about the money. I keep
: it as it is a good story and also an
: extremely good memory related to my father

: Alex