Posted by Another one of these watches I am not really sure how it ended up in my collection… As said many times, I am not really a chronograph guy…
But somehow this watch found its way to my watch box, the Breitling reference 777 Premier Chronograph.
From what I have been able to read on Internet, the 777 is suppose to be quite uncommon, but at the same time you see them quite often…
Not sure what to make of it… Either way, it’s a lovely watch!
Shot of the day: the Breitling reference 777 Premier Chronograph.
A classic looking 45 minutes chronograph with base 1000 Tachymeter scale.
I noticed there are several different dial types for this watch. Whit or without lume, like my watch. With painted index or numbers, with or without the “Anti-choc” on the dial…
Breitling had a lot of these chronographs during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Here is an ad from 1950 showing three versions – the Chronomat, the Duograph and the Dator:
Here is another one from the 1951 Basel Watch Fair. Bottom left, the hands and dial is closer to my watch but as you can see, with olive pushers:
One of the appealing things with this 777 is the size – the 38 mm in diameter stainless steel case. Due to the 20 mm between the lugs the watch looks smaller in photos…
With great wrist presences and warm creamy patina makes it hard to resist this watch!
Another detail is the heated blue needle hands. The seconds hand looks thin as a human hair!
On the back we find 777, waterproof, antimagnetic, stainless steel and a case number. What I find is a bit strange is that if you google this reference, you will find both snap-on case backs and screw-down case backs for the same reference…
My take is that the early once have snap-on case backs and later it got changed to screw-down case backs.
Inside is the Calibre Venus 175, a manual column wheel chronograph movement.
Based on the fact that the that the bridges are not signed and the relatively low case number I suspect my watch is from the early-mid 1940’s.
Next time I have the watch open, I will check for the T.W.O springs, which indicates the movement being pre 1947 according to this movement identification sheet from 1950:
I have still a lot to learn about these early chronographs… But what fun would it be if you knew it all already?!
Stay tuned, more to come!
The Blomman Watch Report 