Recently, the Italian 185° Reconnaissance Parachute Regiment (185° Reggimento Ricognizione Acquisizione Obiettivi "Folgore" - RAO) has decommissioned and sold, through an auction, 40 Breitling 817 chronographs.
These are two of the Italian Ministry of Defence auction web pages:
These chronographs have been assigned during mid-late '70s. In those years the regiment was a Parachute Artillery Regiment. They are all engraved on the caseback with "E.I. 0XXX" as Esercito Italiano and serial number 0XXX.
This is a real first becouse:
- no Italian military watch, AFAIK, has ever been officially decommissioned;
- before this auction, the Breitling 817's were thought to have been assigned only to Italian helicopter Army Pilots (Aviazione Leggera dell'Esercito);
- it is officially stated that the 817 model has been produced only for Italian armed forces.
