Recessed or (Almost) Flush: Past GF Chronomat airborne Datewheel Vs Current Airborne Datewheel

[Slanglican]

Okay!
So, I have gotten into the chronomat!
I really wanted the one I kept hearing and seeing has “no recessed datewheel.”
This is supposed to be the GF airborne black/white dials!
Trustytime’s site explicitly says “no recessed datewheel” and most other TD’s also list a watch that is fairly flush and not recessed!!


I also stumbled upon the thread about this watch when it was being released and it was indeed touted as having “no recessed datewheel.”
...Well, when I got my qc photos, I was at work, scanned over them and was just like sure, everything looks pretty aligned, let’s roll!
However, upon looking at the qc photos further, it sure does look like just your every day, regular-ole sunken datewheel..

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on why this is or whether GF just got lazy and decided to put back an older/alternate cheaper movement woth a different datewheel or what?
Is the current datewheel indeed different than the first few batches? If so, when did it change? Will it ever be flush again? I mean what’s the deal here??

Below are photos from the thread when people were first receiving their chronomat airborne..
Next are my qc photos and while not conclusive, it seems to be a different datewheel. What do you guys think??
Now, here are photos from geektime! I do not know when these were taken but they certainly do not depict a flush datewheel like the first set of pics and the pics from trustytime a website!
Any feedback and input on the subject is appreciated!!
Thank you!

 

[TBK]

Yes, that's definitely a huge difference.
The chonomat has never really been on my wishlist. So I haven't studied it.

Those pics from geektime are horrible. Your qc pics show a less gap, but still more a the ones on the td websites.

Maybe they ran out of the better movements.

 

[korky7]

Thats really noticeable. Wouldn't that be something if gf started to do that with the movements? I know they started to differnt things with the a/r on the dials but this is just really interesting.

 

[Slanglican]

Thats really noticeable. Wouldn't that be something if gf started to do that with the movements? I know they started to differnt things with the a/r on the dials but this is just really interesting.

...well, they did start it at least for this watch.. it is supposed to have no recessed datewheel or at least it started out like that. I was told they “haven’t changed anything” but I don’t really see the pictures reflecting that..

 

[Simonix]

I used to have one. It had a sunken date wheel. Not as bad as other I have owned/seen, but it was still sunken.

Either way, it was a beautiful watch! I regret selling it to be honest.

 

[Importr]

If the whole reason behind buying was to have the correct datewheel, would it be wise to accept the watch? Not sure I would.

 

[Slanglican]

I used to have one. It had a sunken date wheel. Not as bad as other I have owned/seen, but it was still sunken.

Either way, it was a beautiful watch! I regret selling it to be honest.

When did you have one?
what do you make of the pics I posted of the ones with the [basically] flush datewheel..
this one in particular...

I mean that looks pretty dang flush to me. Wouldn’t you agree?

thank you for your Input! It’s greatly appreciated!

 

[Simonix]

When did you have one?
what do you make of the pics I posted of the ones with the [basically] flush datewheel..
this one in particular...

I mean that looks pretty dang flush to me. Wouldn’t you agree?

thank you for your Input! It’s greatly appreciated!

I would say that does look good in comparison to mine.


Mine was bought m2m. It was brand new back in spring 2020.

 

[Simonix]

Here are some photos of mine.... definitely sunken.

 

[Slanglican]

Here are some photos of mine.... definitely sunken.

Is yours a GF??
Honestly, that watch doesn’t even have the correct date font any way. So, it is for sure a different datewheel..: just the wrong font entirely!
the first GF airborne I tried to get was a black dial and it had this font below, which is the same font you just showed me. I rejected the watch altogether...

 

[Slanglican]

Simonix

 

[Simonix]

Slanglican definitly GF. And yes, wrong date font.

 

[Slanglican]

Slanglican definitly GF. And yes, wrong date font.

I tell ya what!
mine will be here Tuesday or Wednesday and when I coNigel my suspicions, I’ll give you first opportunity to buy mine since you regret selling yours!!

 

[Slanglican]

If the whole reason behind buying was to have the correct datewheel, would it be wise to accept the watch? Not sure I would.

as I said in the original post, I was at work and just kinda passed it over... I wasn’t paying much attention to the datewheel when I looked over the watch I just kinda assumed it would be as described on the website..

 

[PAMorROLEX]

Sunken date wheel is a known issue in most of the Brietlings. Modder can do an overlay to make it look less obvious.

 

[Slanglican]

Sunken date wheel is a known issue in most of the Brietlings. Modder can do an overlay to make it look less obvious.

I’m not supposed to have to mod it!
It had a flush datewheel at its inception... that is the point of this post... to try and figure out if anyone knows what happened!
but if you know a good modder, a lot of us would love to know who!!

i appreciate your input!
Thanks!!

 

[Slanglican]

So this is about as good an explanation as we could ask for..

hopefully this will motivate Ttime to accurately depict the watch for future buyers..
Case closed, I guess!

 

[Thatwatchguy]

Interesting to know...so there should be some around in the wild but few and far between.

So they can mod it but with such a low successful completion understandable why they scrapped it.

 

[Slanglican]

Interesting to know...so there should be some around in the wild but few and far between.

So they can mod it but with such a low successful completion understandable why they scrapped it.

I was hoping to get some current pics of it, but no one has come forward yet... so yes, I’d say very few and far between...

Yeah, by my interaction, I just don’t know how much I really believe that... more likely they just couldn’t source the parts again or it was too expensive/time consuming so they were like screw this... it’ll be a year and take a chronomat loving fuck-nut to know or care about the difference anyway...
...well, it has been more than a year, but I am indeed that fuck-nut!

[...Andrew was like... “the watch never made it to market.. and I’m not misrepresenting the watch. What I describe on my website is what I sold you.”
maybe “not making it to market” is different than TD’s selling it on their websites... who knows! But the fact remains it existed, people bought it as such and it is still described as such on multiple TD websites... (although way more explicit on Trustytime than others)]

 

[Importr]

And that it where Trustys website should be revised if the movement is the sunken date version. Call it a V2 or whatever. The explicitness of that description is what influenced you to go ahead with the order with them.