1970 Breitling Navitimer 806 Venus 178 40.5mm
Ref: 806
Specification
Lugs : 22mm
Condition : Pre-Owned
Box & Papers : None
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold as "Watch Only" and, therefore, comes with no original Breitling box or paperwork. The watch comes paired with a well-suited 22mm leather strap. The watch is from Circa. 1970 and is sold in worn vintage condition; signs of age will be seen. The watch has come fresh from service and comes with our 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IHpdKVAriic6ZE2iUQjMUJ2-IA9mp5Kw?usp=drive_link
4K YouTube video, skip to 7:16 - https://youtu.be/TgD3xLhak-M
The Watch
Here we have a classic 1970 Breitling Navitimer 806 Venus 178 with a 40.5mm stainless steel case, the curved profile leads to bevelled-edged tapered lugs, a lug-to-lug length of 48mm and a case thickness of 13mm, ensuring a comfortable fit on your wrist. On the right side, chronograph piston pushers and a signed crown in the centre. A bidirectional bezel has deep coin edge knurling for extra grip; the high-domed acrylic crystal sits above the black dial, and the white outer bi-directional rotating logarithmic slide-rule navigation computer makes complex mathematical calculations helpful to pilots and racing drivers; you can measure a lot of things such as gasoline consumption, miles per minute, and ground speed, rate of descent/climb, distance in descent/climb and nautical / statute mile conversion. Arabic “12” and baton indexes coated in Tritium mark the hours, and three recessed registers add dimension to the dial: at 3 o’clock, a 30-minute register; at 6 o’clock, a 12-hour register; and finally, at 9 o’clock, a continuous small seconds register. Long sword hands are filled in Tritium, complemented by a tapered chronograph arrow-pointed hand. The signature Breitling double jet motif sits at 12 o’clock and at 6 o’clock “Navitimer”. On the reverse, a screw-down case back with Breitling 806 engraved into it, inside a manually wound Venus Cal. 178, 17 jewels, 28,800 beats per hour, column wheel chronograph movement. The watch comes paired with a suitable 22mm black leather strap.
Personal Note
The Breitling Navitimer 806 is a famous and historically important model to Breitling featuring the iconic Manually Wound Venus 178 inside! This example from 1970 we have here is fresh from a service and looks incredible on and off the wrist, plus I can't get over the value of vintage Navitimers, especially when compared to modern Breitling Navitimers, I know what I'd personally be choosing!
The Brand
Breitling was established in 1884 by Leon Breitling in the Swiss Jura Mountains. In 1915, Gaston Breitling introduced a pusher at 2 o’clock to start, stop and reset the chronograph. Leon later moved the reset to a pusher at 4 o’clock. In 1939, Breitling shipped a considerable quantity of chronographs to the Royal Air Force. During the war with Germany surrounding Switzerland, Leon and some friends created a makeshift runway near their factory. Planes would use the car's headlights as a guide to land. Once on the ground, they were quickly loaded, taking off before the Germans knew what was going on. They introduced the “Navitimer”, a navigation computer, in 1952 when Willy Breitling was approached by the US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to produce a watch for its members. His design was made to be worn and incorporated scales to enable pilots to perform all necessary flight calculations, including average speed, distance travelled, fuel consumption, rate of climb or descent, and conversion of miles to kilometres or nautical miles. Later, in 1956, the watch was made available to everyone and the iconic 806 references were established. During the 1960s, Breitling began the development of one of the first automatic mechanical chronograph calibres. In 1969, they collaborated with Heuer, Burne, and Dubois-Depraz on a top-secret project called Project 99. Together, they developed one of the first self-winding chronograph movements. Breitling stands for high precision, outstanding performance, and functionality. During the early days of space exploration, Lt. Commander Scott Carpenter went around the earth three times whilst wearing a modified Navitimer. In 2017, they were sold to CVC Capital Partners, Europe's largest private equity firm.