1969 Breitling Chronomatic Ref. 7651 “Yachting”
Very early Chronomatic; One owner watch!
$4200.00
In 1969 Breitling started with their ‘big case’ Chrono-Matic series with reference 7651 driven by a cal. Breitling 11 movement (that was developed together with Heuer, Hamilton-Büren and Dubois-Dépraz), one of the first automatic chronograph movements with a date window at 6 o’clock and the crown at 9 o’clock.
Collectible & rare, this is first execution of the Chrono-matic “Yachting” introduced in 1969 specifically for yachting. The ref 7651 is a rare execution of the Co-pilot line and features a black dial with painted luminous baton indexes, subsidiary 15-minute and 6- hour register dials, and the distinctive inner bezel for the 5-minute countdown. It's other distinctive feature is having on subdial slightly larger than the other. It's serial number dates it to September 1968 so this marks it as one of the first production batch for the "big case" Breitling.
This was a one owner watch with 50 years of faithful service to a UK Navy Engineer.
Condition:
This watch was recently serviced with the Cal 11 movement is running very strongly with an amplitude of 297 and only losing 1 second a day, which is excellent for a 50 year old timepiece. The chronograph starts and stops crisply and the bezel turns freely (accumulated grime/dust has been cleaned underneath). There are some fine scratches on the case & lugs from normal use. The case back has some scratches from watch opening tools in past (clearly seen in the photos provided).
The dial is in lovely condition for its age and the subdials have no sratches/blemishes; it is noted that there is one tiny speck of lume just below the 1pm marker and a small fibre underneath the plexi, neither is visible when wearing the watch. The lume on the dial and hands is matching and original and has developed a nice even patina.
Specifications:
Year: 1968s
Case No: 1252823
Material: Stainless steel
Dimensions: 46mm diameter; 14mm thickness
Crystal: Plexiglass
Lume: Tritium
Caliber: Self-winding caliber 11 automatic movement
Lug Width: 22mm
The watch comes with a brand new swiss ‘tropic’ style rubber strap and Breitling Extract from the Archives.