Now Live: Breitling AVI 765 “Co-Pilot,” Reverse Panda, 1963

Now live: a 1963 Breitling AVI ref. 765 with the reverse panda dial, the configuration collectors chase hardest. Built as a pure pilot’s tool, it carries a 15-minute counter sized to a pre-flight check, a column-wheel Venus 178 and the nickname “Raquel Welch” from her turn wearing one in Fathom. A 41mm cockpit chronograph that still wears perfectly today.

Why It Matters

Breitling introduced the 765 in 1953 as a dedicated aviator’s chronograph, oversized for its day and stripped back to the information a pilot actually needed. The defining detail sits at three o’clock: a 15-minute register instead of the usual 30, matched to the length of a pre-flight check, with lume dashes every three minutes to make timing it effortless.

Getting that function meant modifying the Venus 178, a high-grade column-wheel movement of the same era and caliber as the Valjoux 72. Around 1962 the reference gained its most famous face, the reverse panda, a matte black dial with silver registers. A few years later Raquel Welch wore one in the 1967 film Fathom, and the nickname stuck.

The early AVI is now recognized as one of the great vintage tool chronographs, and the reverse panda dial is the version that sets the benchmark.

This Example

Dated 1963, squarely inside the reverse panda window. The three-body steel case keeps its fully legible caseback engraving, the tritium markers and hands have aged to a warm cream, and the bidirectional 12-hour bezel is intact. It is fitted to a steel Milanese bracelet.

Specifications

Reference

765

Year

1963

Case

41mm x 13mm stainless steel, three-body, screw-down caseback, 22mm lugs

Movement

Venus 178, manual wind, column wheel, modified 15-minute counter

Dial

Reverse panda, matte black with silver registers, tritium

Bezel

Bidirectional 12-hour, engraved

Bracelet

Steel Milanese

Price

$22,500

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