Breitling

The year 1952 marked the debut of an unprecedented watch prototype that remains an icon to these days: the Breitling Navitimer. The project started after Willy Breitling was approached by the US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to create a new chronograph wristwatch.

The watch would be a true flight instrument, able to calculate the average speed, distance, even fuel consumption and to convert kilometers to miles and nautical miles. As the piece could provide many different information in addition to simply telling the time, the layout of the dial and the case diameter had to be adapted for a maximum of readability, even in flight conditions.

The result was one of the most famous watches in the world, the Navitimer, with a design considered as perfection in its field and which has nearly not seen any change over its 70 years of production. Its name is a portmanteau of the words 'navigation' and 'timer', clearly expressing the purpose of this tool watch.

While the watches produced for the first few years were only delivered to the AOPA and did not have any reference number nor Breitling signature on the dial, Breitling made the Navitimer available to the public in 1956 by launching the legendary Reference 806.

Different versions of the 806 have been produced by Breitling, always in an effort to improve the wonderful tool watch they had created.

As such, in the early 1960's the dial evolved to have contrasting subsidiary dials for the chronograph and constant seconds, creating the famous reverse panda configuration. Soon after, in 1965, the bezel changed from beaded to milled edge bezel. Around the same time, Breitling introduced its new "twin-plane" logo.

This present example features this famous logo above the Breitling Geneve signature. It has the correct glossy reverse panda dial with "small eyes" subsidiary counters.

The watch, accompanied by its original invoice and booklet, a rarity on its own, is presented on behalf of the family of its original owner, a pilot who wanted to carry the perfect co-pilot on his wrist to accompany him for his air ventures!

About John R, the original owner of this Breitling Navitimer 806:

John gained his private pilot license in New-Zealand in 1962 and moved back to the UK 1968. To celebrated it, his mother offered him this Breitling Navitimer watch. He used it as a navigational aid through most of his flying years, then as a watch when he was not in the air . His job as an computer engineer allowed him to live in seven countries although he visited over 60. In some he obtained flying licences, these included UK, Kenya, South Africa, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and USA. John's life was never boring and always full of adventures. He never lost his love of flying and aeroplanes. The Breitling was his most treasured possession, which helped him navigate those early flying years before GPS and other technologies took over.