$22,500.00
Movement: Venus Caliber 178, manual-wind, column-wheel chronograph, 17 jewels, modified for 15-minute counter, straight-line lever escapement, self-compensating Breguet balance spring
Case: 41mm stainless steel three-body, 13mm thick, screw-down caseback with intact “BREITLING 765 WATERPROOF SHOCK PROTECTED ANTIMAGNETIC STAINLESS STEEL” engraving, signed crown, round chronograph pushers, curved lugs, 22mm lug width
Dial: Reverse panda, matte black with silver sub-dials, luminous baton indexes and Arabic 12, 15-minute register with lume plots at three-minute intervals, running seconds and 12-hour registers, tritium markers and hands aged to a warm cream patina
Bezel: Steel bidirectional rotating 12-hour graduated bezel, black engraved numerals
Bracelet: Stainless Steel Milanese Bracelet
Year: 1963
The AVI 765 is one of the most legendary utilitarian chronographs of the 20th century, and this is the configuration collectors chase hardest. Breitling developed the 765 in 1953 as a purpose-built pilot’s chronograph, oversized and stripped of everything but essential flight information. Around 1962 the reference received its most iconic dial treatment, the reverse panda, a matte black dial with contrasting silver sub-dials, and this example dates to 1963, right in the heart of that celebrated window. It is often nicknamed the “Raquel Welch” after she wore one in the 1967 film Fathom, and Breitling leaned into that association in later advertising.
The detail that defines the AVI is the 15-minute counter at 3 o’clock rather than the usual 30. That was no accident: 15 minutes was exactly the duration of a pre-flight check before an aircraft was cleared for takeoff, and the sub-register even carries lume dashes at three-minute intervals to make timing that routine effortless. Achieving this required a modification of the standard Venus 178, a high-grade column-wheel movement that competed directly with the Valjoux 72 and remains one of the most respected chronograph calibers of its era. The 41mm case was large for its time and wears beautifully today.