The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi everyone,

I came here while trying to research this Navitimer I was gifted for my wedding by my dad.
He has owned the watch for 20 years or so. It has been sent to Breitling via a larger dealer in Switzerland at least twice in the last 10 years for service where authenticity was confirmed.
As I just love to research stuff like this, especially since it’s vintage, I started trying to find which years they made this reference and that’s where I failed to find my exact watch, so I grew curious on whether it might have been modified at some point. Here are the facts:

- The case back says Ref 7806 but I can’t find a single Navitimer online that has my exact dial layout, most specifically, my watch has no sweeping seconds counter, but still carries the “Navitimer” name directly below the “Breitling” and “Geneve” tags. I either find examples with with 2 counters with the “Navitimer” tag further down, slightly below the middle and away from “Breitling” and “Geneve” or Navitimers with 3 counters and the all 3 tags directly below each other right under the 2 jets.
Also, the face looks really spotless and not like its 40+ years old, so that’s my main worry, that the face has been swapped at some point..

- The plexi crystal was replaced with a new one last service (thank god they included the original old one but even that one doesn’t look too aged, just scratched)

- The crown and 2 pushers have been replaced by black ones, probably to match the black casing?? (sadly only the silver crown and 1 silver pusher is still with us)
The main question here for me is, why is the case black and was it done by factory for military use etc. and if the dials and pushers are supposed to be black as well or silver (found one old auction online with similarly black case but silver dials. Btw I prefer the black and really hope it’s meant like that, lol.

Really looking forward to any new insights and, no matter if positive or negative aspects are raised, I will love the watch equally, regardless. I have been admiring it as a teenager, for me it’s the perfect wedding gift and it will stay in the family forever.

Thanks so much in advance!

PS sorry for the not so perfect photos..

it is a ref. 7806-S, in itself a rare version of the Navitimer, even rarer in this PVD version, an unknown but ver small quantity of these was assembled in the mid 1970s - the modification wasn‘t registered in the production ledgers (the case was manufactured in October 1973, the modification done years later).

unsure about the dial, it may be SL lume, as it looks quite shiny, would indicate it was replaced during service.

I think dial / slide rule replaced.

That is really beautiful watch, enjoy it

super cool, i have never seen a PVD one. love it!!

That PVD case intensifies the beauty of the dial. Very nice. Enjoy!!

Thanks so much for the replies guys! Does anybody have an idea about the dial with the Navitimer positioned directly under Breitling Geneve? Have you seen this before on the 7806-S?

As fred mentioned, it is probably a service dial.

Sure, I understand, but why would they have a different dial than the „regular“ production lines?

No idea, but i guess to recognise the the original from the service version ?

I have an original one in mint condition. If interesting for you, just send me a private message.