Now Live: Breitling SuperOcean “Slow Motion” Chronograph Ref. 2005, 1967

Now live: a 1967 Breitling SuperOcean ref. 2005, the “Slow Motion” chronograph. Breitling rebuilt the movement so the central chronograph hand takes a full hour to circle the dial, turning the whole face into an elapsed-time display a diver can read at depth, and added a tiny running indicator at six to prove it is working. One of the cleverest dive watches of the 1960s.

Why It Matters

A standard chronograph minute counter is small, and small is hard to read underwater. Breitling’s 1965 solution under Willy Breitling was radical: modify the Venus 188 so the central hand completes one revolution per hour rather than per minute. The entire dial becomes a large minute track.

That created a new problem, because a hand moving that slowly gives no visual sign the chronograph is running. So Breitling added a status window at six o’clock: black when stopped, yellow when running, black with a yellow dot when paused. It is the detail collectors seek out first.

With its 42mm case, diamond-tipped hands and high-contrast minute ring, the 2005 has the experimental confidence of 1960s dive design, and honest examples have grown steadily harder to find.

This Example

Dated 1967, with intact caseback engravings, a signed Breitling crown and a working three-state indicator. The tritium markers and oversized hands have aged to a warm, matching patina, and the dial carries the “SWISS MADE T” designation.

Specifications

Reference

2005

Year

1967

Case

42mm stainless steel, screw-down caseback, rotating timing bezel, 200m

Movement

Venus 188, manual wind, column wheel, modified for one-hour central counter

Dial

Black center, white minute ring, status indicator at 6, tritium

Price

$22,500

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