1968 Breitling Cosmonaute 0819

The "First Swiss wristwatch in space," manufactured according to astronaut Scott Carpenter's specifications. Breitling delivered the "astronaut-designed" prototype to Carpenter on May 18th, 1962. He then wore it as part of the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission on May 24th, 1962. As part of that mission aboard the Aurora 7 spacecraft, Carpenter and his Cosmonaute orbited the earth three times before returning to Earth and splashing down safely in the Atlantic.

In the late 1960s, Breitling introduced the 819 as a Cosmonaute in a larger case, with a serrated-edge bezel, rather than the coin-edge or beaded bezel of earlier iterations. It was introduced before - but manufactured concurrently with - the automatic reference 1809, and the two shared the same case design.

Condition:

The case and dial are both ‘untouched’ and in excellent condition with only very light scratches throughout.  The dial is lovely with the thick luminous material on the markers intact with even ageing and matching with the lume on the hands.  The caseback is worn (from many years of contact with the bracelet) and exhibits light scratches throughout, but the case number and reference, as well as the other caseback engravings, are still visible.    Service history is not known however from inspection the Venus 178 movement is very clean and performs very strongly on the timegrapher gaining approximately 12 seconds per day with an incredible amplitude of 354 suggesting it was recently serviced.

Specifications:

Movement: Manual winding, Venus 178

Case: Steel · Screw-down case back with patent engraving "DDE. BR.+11525/67" (timepiece with rotating bezels) · folded steel bracelet · Strap length 140 mm · Total length 185 mm (expandable).

Dimensions: 47.5mm diameter; 13mm thickness

Dial: Black with luminous Arabic numerals (tritium)

Crystal: Plexiglass

Accessories: Original Box, Instructions and International Warranty.  Additional brown leather strap.

An extract from the archives has been requested from Breitling.