The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I'm a new forum member,and joined to research our 1955 AOPA Navitimer ( 806 stamped on outside of case back) and what seems to be a valjoux 72 movement. Serial #868,3xx. I have several pictures,and am attempting to post them with this message. The watch belonged to my wife's father. We have owned it ,put away and forgotten since his death in1986. We think he bought it when new. He was a private pilot all of his adult life,and owned multiple planes; twin Beech, Texas trainer, Aeronca, but his favorite and last was the Republic Seabee,and he had several from the late 50's untill he was no longer able to fly. I have been trying to contact chronodeco (Craig) for advice on how to send it to him for evaluation/repair. Emails to the chronodeco email address have come back as undeliverable twice,something about a domino list, and I left a voice message on his answering system 2 days ago.

PM Craig here. He is in California right now but I am sure he will respond as soon as he sees it.

Wayne

Craig is away until Monday, but u can pm him here (member chronodeco), he'll get back to you.

Movement is a Venus 178 not an R72, late 1955 as you correctly state; very nice piece that needs a bit of TLC, Craig will work wonders on it.

congrats on a beautiful family heirloom & welcome to breitlingsource !

And no, does not seem to be val.72 movement from image, although blurry to me and I am known for my poor eyesight. I am pretty sure it's a Venus.

Wayne

Thanks, for the confirmation there Fred. And for adding Craig's member chronodeco. Parkinson's brain not going fully yet.

Wayne

Thanks for all the feed back. Confused about how to ID-- Venus vs Valjoux. Thought I had it figured out .

V178



V72



R72

I think thats right, That should help, both incredible feats of engineering and should have had imo crystal case backs to show them off

R72

Sorry , whoa there Fred, need some education r72?

From searching the Forum, I thought the 3 screws holding the mvmt. to the case indicated an R72, but I'm not with familiar enough with the different configurations of the 2 mvmts.

Biggest movement give away should be the bridge - y shaped piece.

well, to make matters a bit more complicated, the Venus 178 was available w/ a U shaped bridge too, very similar to the R72 - used in early Breitlings and several other brands

here on a Venus 175 in the Ranfft database - which is your best tool should you need DIY verification help in the future.

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db. ... &Venus_175


@supermoto: Valjoux SA was founded by the Raymond brothers and was named Raymond Freres SA, company name was changed, but the original R markings on the movements remained. Actually another way to recognize Valjoux movements, a script R engraved next to the balance wheel.

Now I want to go look to see if the "R" is there, but....I am Not taking that back off again ! I had no business, at my level, getting in there in the first place. Thanks to all of you for great feed back and help.

Thanks for the lesson Fred brilliant knowledge as always

Right, hence my "should". I should not be so lazy in my posts even when on a phone - it's more accurate to say that a Y is always a 178, a U is more likely to be a 72, but isn't definitive.