Several days ago, Kav asked a question about the relationship between Breitling and Heuer, as follows:

What's your opinion about vintage Breitlings? How would you compare them to Heuers. In my opinion the two companies have more common aspects than differences. The collaboration for the development (and use) of the first automatic chronograph is only one of their many similarities. They were both focusing in sports watches, they were in the same price range etc. I think that Heuer had more brand awarness than Breitling and a more agressive marketing pilicy. Does anyone have any thoughts or info about the relation (comparison) of Heuer and Breitling?

Five years ago, when I first started collecting timers and chronographs, Heuer and Breitling were the two brands that were most interesting to me. In order to provide a response to Kav, and to provide my scan day story, let me share some thoughts about the two brands, and about how I came to collect the Heuers rather than the Breitlings. The photo that I have posted below brings the story to its conclusion -- showing the one Breitling in my collection and a comparable Heuer.

Back in 1998, when I got interested in collecting, I had seen the dashboard Heuers, in the metal, but had never actually seen a vintage Heuer chronograph, in the metal. So every day on ebay, I would search for the Heuers and search for the Breitlings. (I would also search the Omegas occasionally, but only got seriously interested in a couple of models.) After looking at hundreds of different models of Heuer and Breitling, through ebay listings, the first chronograph that I bought was a Heuer. I expected that I would collect a few of each brand -- Heuer and Breitling -- but five years later, I own many of the Heuers and one single, solitary Breitling (which is shown in the photograph below).

In simplest terms, every line of watches has a certain look -- certain common design elements that combine to create a "style" (maybe the parallel in the automotive world is that a Mercedes usually looks like a Mercedes and an Audi will look like an Audi and a Porche will look like a Porsche). Over time, and after looking at every imaginable Heuer and every imaginable Breitling, I was drawn to the Heuers and the Breitlings never looked quite right. To this day, there are relatively few of the Breitlings that look "right" to me. (I realize, of course, that this aesthetics preference is entirely personal, and that the Breitlings must look better to lots of folks.) I have also liked the fact that the Heuers typically sell at a discount to the Breitlings -- definitely a consideration in selecting a brand that will be the core of a collection.

Admitting that I know very little about the Breitlings, I would draw the following comparisons between the two brands:

• Both brands are focused on chronographs -- rather than time-of-day watches -- and both brands are associated with timing specific types of events.

• Historically, Heuer has been associated with sports timing and more specifically automobile racing and rallying; Brietling seems to have this same position in the world of airplanes and pilots, and maybe flight itself (I believe some of the recent solo balloon flights were sponsored by Breitling).

• Accordingly, Heuer positioned itself as the racer's watch and breitling positioned itself as the pilot's watch. Around the paddock at 1960s race tracks, you saw Heuers...this was "the" watch to own. I believe that the Breitlings have the same status among pilots. Perhaps Rolex is established in each realm, as well.

• In focusing on their particular "specialties" -- timing cars and planes -- both the brands emphasized certain qualities. For example, Breitling states that its five "legendary qualities" are precision, reliability, sturdiness, functionality and readability. Heuer would seem to emphasize similar criteria in its chronographs. These criteria probably led to the two brands having a similar "look and feel".

• Each brand incorporated features that were useful to the targeted users. For example, Heuers added tachymeter markings, so that racers could compute MPH, etc., and Breitling added the whiz wheels, so that pilots could calculate all sorts of things.

• Looking at the vintage pieces, in terms of the overall build quality of the pieces and the quality of the movements, I do not now enough about the breitlings to make the comparison. In terms of current prices, for models with similar features and at comparable positions in the two ranges, the breitlings seem to sell at a premium to the Heuers.

• In terms of the timepieces currently being produced by the two companies, Breitling seems to occupy a higher price point and quality point than TAG-Heuer. Again, I do not know enough to compare the quality / value offered by either brand (because I do not pay much attention to modern watches). I believe that all the modern Breitlings are chronometer-certified, which probably requires the use of higher quality movements throughout the line.

• I believe that the two brand have traditionally been dead-on, head-to-head competitors...no common ownership, etc.

• To my limited knowledge, the one time the brands worked together, was on the creation of the world's first automatic chronograph -- called the chrono-matic by heuer and breitling. (This story is often told, so I won't repeat it here.)

• Comparing the Chrono-Matics, the more common Breitlings seem to sell at a premium to the more common Heuers (Carrera and Autavia, for example). [Of course, the Heuer Monaco is in a price range of its own, with a "common" Monaco selling at over twice the price of a common Autavia or Carrera.] Still, if you had to summarize, it appears that the Breitlings do sell at a premium to the Heuers -- whether we are considering vintage manual wind, the Chrono-Matics or the modern lines produced by the two brands.