Yonger & bresson - YBH 8311K

[Reno]

Hi guys,



First, a bit of history

I'm always looking for a French watch brand, and as it's not for soon I'll be able to afford a BRM, so I have to do with YEMA, LIP and very recently…
YONGER & BRESSON.

To make a long story short, I'm a fan of YEMA & LIP (before 1974) for a long time, but Yonger & Bresson never interested me, mainly because the brand was making cheap quartzes in the 80s' and had an especially cheesy advertising campain every french person in their late 30s' remember with terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKwnLBwVpsE

o_O
Believe me guys, the lyrics are… well you really don't want to know !

Yesterday afternoon, I was seeking informations about YEMA, recently bought by AMBRE… owner of… Yonger & Bresson \o/

I took a look at Y&B site,
http://www.yonger-bresson.fr/
and discovered their current line isn't that bad, really, with many auto movements, and even manual winding TOURBILLONS I was intrigued, to say the less.

I looked for retail places, and saw that their was an AD in Versailles, very near from the road I take everyday. It was settled, I had to see for myself, and took the direction of the shop right away.

It was a very small shop, in a funny little street. The watchmaker was very kind, and we began to talk about watches... Unfortunately, all the Y&B he had were quartzes… except one, a sporty 3-hands and here it is :



It didn't really catch my attention, yesterday, especially because of the price (230€ ) much, much too expensive for what I believe is a chinese movement but I don't know why, I've been thinking about this watch all day long and finally, in the middle of the day, I called back the watchmaker and asked him if he was OK to sell it to me for 170€ (a bit more than 25% off), that he agrees in the end \o/

So I get back to the shop after work, and bought it.
I know it's too expensive for what it really is, but I really like it, and you guys know how these things happen… we're weak, all resistance is useless

This model is romantically baptised "YBH 8311K"
It exists with black dial (this one), white & cream.

A bit of datas :

The dial has "clou de Paris" finish.
The numbers are white, applied, with steel all around.
The seconds hand is red with W&B crown at one end (nice )
Great white lume on numbers + hours & minutes hands
The date window (with cyclops) is at 6h ; I don't think I ever owned a watch with this configuration
See-through case (mineral glass both front & back) antireflective glass
The movement is nicely finished, with a golden sundialed & Y&B branded mass,
18 jewels
Metallic spacer
"Besançon" stamp on the back (it can be seen between "Étanche 50 mètres" and "Verre anti-reflet" markings).
The crown is signed
All writings are in french.

- It's an automatic movement (I think it's probably chinese, but it's really, really nicely finished and it looks "heavier" than my other mushroom watches if someone can identify it, I'd be pleased

- the case is 40mm without the crown, 42mm crown included, 11mm high
- 48mm lugs to lugs
- the lugs are 20mm wide
- the case is "levelled", rather nice

The strap is a black leather with white stitchings with a nice buckle, nothing spectacular, but quite OK. One thing, it's unusually long

And now, enough with the long talk, here are the PICS ! (to avoid long dowloading times, I'll post again after this page)

PART I

I - Packaging :
Nothing fancy, a black metallic box, no papers/instructions…









II - General overlook :















I'm not sure the "Fabriqué en France" is 100% true, but…

And now, let's move to Part II ---->