A stainless steel and gold plated manually wound Breitling Navitimer pilots watch. There is unlikely to be a more recognized pilot’s watch in the watch market, and certainly not one that has stayed the course. It is essentially to flying as the Submariner is to diving. When people think of a pilot’s watch, they think of a Brietling Navitimer. And in particular, this panda dial version. This design and model was essentially the second main iteration of the model. It was initially launched in mid-1950’s in association with the AOPA (Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association) and rather than featuring a Breitling logo of branding had the winged AOPA logo. The early models also tended to be all black dial, had a different, beads of rice, edge to the rotating outer bezel, and were powered by a Valjoux caliber 72 movement. However, by the time the 1960’s rolled around there were a number of changes and improvements made. The softer edge to the beaded bezel disappeared. It was replaced by a more of a saw-tooth edge that was presumably easier to use with a flight glove on. The sub-dials were moved to a silvery/white colour in order to improve visibility against the black dial. The movement was changed to a Venus 178 caliber, and last but by no means least, the AOPA winged logo was replaced by the Breitling twin jet logo. All of these improvement are found on this example of the 806. The outer telemeter, which allows speed and distance traveled to be calculated, was poorly sealed, and so sadly, many of these earlier Navitimers, Chronomat and Cosmonaut watches suffered dirt and moisture damage. Especially to the outer track printing. However, as can be seen with this example, it is in superb condition throughout with only light spotting and no loss of the detail. The original dial has no colour fade and no areas of damage. As well, this is the more rare black dial with gilt printing. The classic panda dials on steel case have silver printing, and is not so appealing to the eye. The large and detailed dials are what make this watch so appealing to collectors, so to find one in this kind of condition is a real bonus. The original Tritium luminous material is present on the long hour markers, and also in the gold plated hands, as opposed to the classic white painted hands. The case is very sharp throughout showing no signs of being polished. The gold plating has an incredible patina formed over it. it has been left as found, since it is now over sixty years of forming. However, if you desire the watch to look 'as new' we can restore the case to look clean gold. Both serial and reference numbers are clear and present on the case back. The watch is presented on, what is believed to be original graduated elasticated band that is gold plated to the top. It fits the watch perfectly and was on the watch that came form the original owner's family. We have also provided a new corfam style black leather racing band on the watch. Both will accompany the watch when shipped. Overall, this represents a very honest and original complete example of the pilot’s wristwatch complete with original guarantee paperwork and operating manual. So popular has this watch been for Breitling that not only was a re-issue introduced based on the original example at Basel in 2019, the model still lives on today in the line up. Here is an opportunity to own a complete original example in one of its most rare forms.
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