Breitling Caliber 73 Watch Movement

Brand	Breitling
Caliber Number	73, B73
Base Caliber	ETA caliber 251.264
Movement Type	Quartz (mechaquartz / SuperQuartz)
Diameter	13 1/4”’ (30mm)
Height	5mm
Battery Cell Number	394 (SR936SW)
Claimed Battery Life	5-6 yrs
Jewel Count	27
Hacking Seconds?	Yes
COSC?	Yes
Functions	Central hours; central minutes; central chronograph minutes; central chronograph seconds; 1/10 seconds chronograph subdial at 2:00; 12 hours chronograph subdial at 10:00; flyback, add and split chrono functions; date at 4:30
Country	Switzerland, Swiss made
Known Models	Chronospace Evo Night Mission (Add your watch in the comments below…)

The Breitling caliber 73 is a thermocompensated superquartz movement that is a Certified Chronometer (COSC). It is found in many Breitling quartz chronograph watches including but not limited to the Avenger Seawolf Chronograph, Colt Chronograph II, Emergency Misson, SuperOcean Chronograph M2000, Chronospace Evo Night Mission.

Some of the topics covered in this caliber listing:

Not In-House:

Despite other watch blogs claiming that the Breitling cal. 73 is an in-house movement, it is actually based off the ETA Thermaline SuperQuartz caliber 251.264. It is a hybrid mechanical/quartz movement.

PowerDrive and PreciDrive:

In ETA’s own words:

The PowerDrive technology integrated into all these movements controls the motor drive and increases the speed of rotation of the hands on the dial to 200 Hz, that is to say 200 hand jumps per second. It offers the manufacturer a great deal of freedom in the display combinations. This arrangement provides one more remarkable dynamic to a modern three-counter, sport-chic look that is already well known and appreciated by the general public. The PreciDrive technology integrated into a calibre will allow the watch to achieve exceptional precision of +/- 10 seconds a year, a score equivalent to a precision of 0.027 seconds a day.

Accuracy:

The calibre 73 is considered to be a SuperQuartz movement and COSC, therefore, Breitling claims that it is 10 times more accurate than a standard quartz movement.

Date Setting:

This movement sets time just like most other watches, with exception of the date. The date is mechanical. Instead of a typical quickset date where rotating the drown in position 1 flips the calendar wheel, the date is advanced by the hour hand jumping forward in one hour increments (similar to the Rolex GMT-Master II or quartz Omega Seamaster for example). This feature also assists in setting the second time zone.