Horological Meandering

another hunt has come to an end.

had been searching for this elusive piece for a very, very long time. model history is full of unconfirmed rumors, the ref. 765 was the first waterproof chronograph launched by "Breitling 8" Military Aviation Division in the very late 1930s - in 1953 Breitling produced a miniscule number of ref. 765 marked "AVI";  with a 12h bezel and a heavily modified Venus 178 movement and a "digital" 15 minute totalizer - claimed to be prototypes for the French Army tender that Breguet finally won; later versions have "regular" minute counter hands.

this piece was purchased by a young amateur pilot from a wealthy Ohio family in the mid/late 1950s - who quickly lost interest in flying and the watch ended up in a drawer for the next 50 years, unworn, was able to buy it in a trade from his son and grandson in law who both prefer more "modern" watches, thankfully.

no sunlight in Vienna, so just a wrist shot, will post additional pics of the movement and the virginal case when the light is a bit better; case is from the first batch produced in 1953, WOG-marking on the bridge and chrono second hand indicate it was assembled in 1955 or 1956.

assume Eitan & Nicolas might enjoy this one, hope others too ?

HappyFred

Looks great!

And yes, others may also enjoy this one...

Please have a look at this document "La Montre et les Métiers" from 1958.

Best

Blomman

this seems to be the earliest printed documentation for this model !
thanks for posting this,
Fred

Here is a bigger scan.

Translated by Google:

The chronograph dual tripmeter (15 minutes counter, 12 hour hand) is intended for aviators.
Total minutes are replaced by a disc whose numbers 1 to 15 appear on the window.
Hence reading easier for the pilot without risk of error in observations of short duration, such as a landing.
Rotating bezel.

Best

Blomman

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you never cease to amaze me with your treasure trove of material.

Do you have an English translation of what it says?

Don't remember if I ever showed you this one from the same document...?

I guess you recognize the Longines...!

About the translation - please see my reply to Fred.

Best, my friend

Blomman

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To bring it back, for me to take pictures. His is in superb condtion, too!

Best,

Nicolas

Has it been restored in anyway ? 

cosmetically it is "untouched", watch had been serviced a year ago, after lying in a drawer for half a century and the watchmaker did not know how to work on that minute counter disc modification, so he broke a spring and the counter didn't work, my wonderful watchmaker succeeded in getting it run perfectly again, but that's it; dial and case are in almost NOS condition, lume is original, we even did not try to clean the hands lume but left it untouched.

I've been hunting for almost 5 years for an affordable and all correct piece ....

Quite happy, I must admit.
Fred

and even though I am not a chronograph collector, that one is particularly fine.

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. . . to many, Fred, including myself.  Finding one in excellent original condition is cause for celebration; many thanks for sharing your joy with us.

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Fred,

and I'll do a complete photo shoot of this one, maybe including a bit about the model history of the ref. 765 aviators from the early 1940s to 1969, when Breitling launched the last 765x Co-Pilot AVI, some nice watches and a shame they are relatively unknown.
Fred

what a beauty, in such a superlative state!

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you mean be consumed with envy - then you've hit the spot.

Truly a beautiful and amazing watch Fred. Not many Breitling's left on my Grail list, but this one has been for a very loooong time. CONGRATS!!!

The earliest 765 ref I've come across are in late Thirties catalogues and this Ref runs until the Seventies, over Forty years in some form or another.

I just posted another shot of this in wirstscan in honour of your excellent find.

'65 AOPA ref. 765

We'll have to try and get this together someday.

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Hi,
congrats - very nice one!!
May I ask if this one has rose gold plated movement already or the older version with nickel (or rhodium ) plating?

Actually movement modifications were relatively simple - but dial and underlying minute counter disc often were damaged
or not running true after "unsensible" service work....
I think tiny tolerances and relatively small aperture plus the above described were one reason for the later AVI with traditional hand 15 minute register.

Here's mine which is long gone but at least I have the (bad) pic

That's probably earlier than your's (ß)

 

Those are among the best quality Breitling over a long period - very good case quality and some of the best movement finish for standard Breitlings IMHO...

Best regards
Suitbert

mine has the gilded movement, assume yours did too ?

Hi Fred,
this one had the old movement finish, have a look:

Best regards
Suitbert

seems to be one of the earliest, no import marking on the balance cock.

You really found a perfect one, congratulations. It also took me a while to find both iterations of it (first and second serie, with and without "Genève" on the dial).  Funnily, it was easier for me to find my BP Air Commands that this one. As a side note:  these AVI have become quite expensive recently.