The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I noticed the numbers direction of the outer ring of Breitling 808 is different. White ring goes anticlockwise and black ring goes clock wise. Anybody knows the reason why.
I've seen a 808 with the center section and the outer ring in black (same as the attached link photo with gold case) but in stainless steel. Is it consider rare?

https://farfo.com/vintage-wristwatches/ ... ph-217012/

http://www.breitling-museum.com/Breitli ... nomat.html

The reverse scale (reciprocal scale) on the watches (circular slide rules) is used to workout some specific calculations. The outer scale on these watches is equivalent to the 'CL' scale on a standard slide rule. It's useful for working out inverse proportion calculations (if a plane goes from A to B at 450 knots in 6 hrs how long will i take if the speed is increased to 500 knots = 5.4hrs). The CL scale can also be used for multiple calculations ( 4 x 5 x 7) but you need a third scale to read against.
Conventionally a circular slide rule scales will read clockwise. Two clockwise scales will be used for standard multiplication and division.
If both versions were available I guess the original purchaser would have to decide which calculations they were going to have to make more often (the two clockwise scales would be more versatile). Or alternatively which looked cooler! Although earlier watches may have only had reciprocal scales, I don't know.
It is unlikely that the outer bezel was from a different watch with 2 anticlockwise scales as I doubt that set up would have been easily usable.