Breil Dephometer

A place to discuss vintage watches.
Post Reply
Southpaw
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:18 am
Name: Richard

Breil Dephometer

Post by Southpaw » Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:23 pm

Touched down just recent, Breil Manta 20atm quartz "Depthometer". I've got a thing for old school Breil Manta's and have been looking for a watch with a depth guage built into the crystal for some time. Then I spotted some Ebay Mantas that had this, the prices were too high for my pocket but sold listings showed that they just weren't shifting, so I waited on an unsold one been relisted at a slightly lower price each time until the price and exchange rate were both go and then got it.

The acrylic crystal has an air hole feeding a capped perimeter chamber. Taking a dip (Not tried yet) traps an air bubble and as you get lower the increasing pressure at depth compresses the air bubble smaller. Then you just read the depth off the chapter ring markings. So water can get inside part of the crystal but not the watch proper. Other makers called them depthmeter watches, Breils always seem to be "DephOmeter". That's cheerily pedantic of them. Oddly the screw back says "Profondimetre", very French. Logically I'd expect it to be the Italian: "Profondimetro".

Rated depth is 20ATM. The caseback is a screwdown MRP, case reminded me of a particular Squale but can't remember which one. Lume almost gone but a pleasure to have on the wrist.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

User avatar
aikiman44
Tiki Extraordinaire
Posts: 9440
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:50 am
Name: J

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by aikiman44 » Mon Sep 20, 2021 3:00 pm

Cool vintage.
"We'd better synchronize our watches."

Southpaw
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:18 am
Name: Richard

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by Southpaw » Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:26 am

Thanks Aikiman.
I almost forgot, it has an ETA movement, looks to be a 955 112.
I'm assuming the depth is in metres and there's a red blob that looks like it's painted onto the underneath of the hole, so I guess underwater the depth shows up as a red stripe like a thermometer. I'm not going to try it underwater until I've replaced the seals, if they're anything like the lume paint there won't be much life left in them.

River Rat
DWC Tribal Council
Posts: 12663
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:00 am
Location: Montana

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by River Rat » Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:36 am

Cool watch. These have one of the first early quartz movements. I got the almost the same model but with out depth gauge. Got it as a fixer upper since the movement needed work. Took Jack at IWW a long time to get it working correctly I had to get a donor movement for parts and his watch maker got it running new crystal new crown and relume, Still has original movement except for a few parts from a donor movement. Does the depth gauge still work ?
Image

Southpaw
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:18 am
Name: Richard

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by Southpaw » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:36 am

River Rat wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:36 am
Cool watch. These have one of the first early quartz movements. I got the almost the same model but with out depth gauge. Got it as a fixer upper since the movement needed work. Took Jack at IWW a long time to get it working correctly I had to get a donor movement for parts and his watch maker got it running new crystal new crown and relume, Still has original movement except for a few parts from a donor movement. Does the depth gauge still work ?
Image
Yours is a very tasty watch. Did you keep the original hands or change them to match the diameters of the donor movement? Having slightly different hands gives a very different appearance to mine. I assume nothing much goes wrong with such a simple guage, I guess accidentally blocking the hole is the main problem.

Southpaw
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:18 am
Name: Richard

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by Southpaw » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:37 am

River Rat wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:36 am
Cool watch. These have one of the first early quartz movements. I got the almost the same model but with out depth gauge. Got it as a fixer upper since the movement needed work. Took Jack at IWW a long time to get it working correctly I had to get a donor movement for parts and his watch maker got it running new crystal new crown and relume, Still has original movement except for a few parts from a donor movement. Does the depth gauge still work ?
Image
Yours is a very tasty watch. Did you keep the original hands or change them to match the diameters of the donor movement? Having slightly different hands gives a very different appearance to mine. I assume nothing much goes wrong with such a simple guage, I guess accidentally blocking the hole is the main problem.

River Rat
DWC Tribal Council
Posts: 12663
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:00 am
Location: Montana

Re: Breil Dephometer

Post by River Rat » Tue Sep 21, 2021 12:42 pm

Original hands just different model than yours. Just crystal and crown been replaced

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 127 guests