Any well-rounded watch collection needs a chronograph, right? I’d take this chance to get one I’ve wanted for years, the Navitimer Cosmonaute. One of the first chronographs that I ever fell for back in high school was the luxury replica Breitling Navitimer. Its busy design spoke to me then, and it does to this day. Now, though, I also adore the history behind it. The most characterful version, I feel, is the 24-hour-dial fake Breitling Cosmonaute online. I’m a sucker for the mid-’90s D12022 with its 41mm case, hand-wound movement, yellow gold bezel, gold hands, and tritium lume. Oh, and the blued hands in the white sub-dials are the delicious icing on the cake! Now, in real life, I’m hunting for a blue-dial version since I’ve reached my self-imposed limit of two black-dial replica watches. In this scenario, however, I’d opt for the equally attractive and even more classic-looking black-dial version.
I would choose this specific cheap fake Breitling and import it from Japan (remember, for this exercise, I live in the Netherlands). The reason is that it still has its tritium-lumed hands, which are often the first things to go bye-bye when these neo-vintage pieces get serviced. Especially with such beautifully aged tritium on the dial, I’d hate to lessen the impact with bright Super-LumiNova on the hands. Furthermore, this particular aaa quality replica Breitling seems to be in nice shape, showing great definition on the beveled lugs and notched bezel. The Lemania 1877 caliber inside should be straightforward to maintain, and this Swiss movement copy Breitling even comes with its box and papers! At the time of writing, it’ll cost me €3,777 plus €95 for shipping. With the 4.5% Dutch import tax and 21% VAT, that should bring the total to just about €4,896. I’ve spent €9,256 so far, so I’ve got over €15K left!