Why We Love the Breitling Navitimer 806-36 'Big Eyes' 41MM, 1970s

The 36 in 806-36 is a movement number, not a case measurement. It marks the moment Breitling ran out of Venus 178 calibres and finished the Navitimer's hand wound life with a Valjoux instead, and it lands on the version of the dial where the subdials had already been made deliberately larger so a pilot could read them at a glance. A slide rule, three fat counters and a cam operated chronograph. This is the Navitimer at its most practical and, as it turned out, very close to its last.

From the Chronomat to the Cockpit

Breitling did not invent the aviation chronograph, but it did put mathematics on the bezel first.

The slide rule came before the Navitimer

Breitling was the first watch company to put a circular slide rule on a chronograph dial, doing it in 1940 with the Chronomat, more than a decade before the Navitimer existed, as Phillips records. The Navitimer took that idea and pointed it squarely at aviators. Rotate the bezel against the fixed outer scale and the logarithmic pairing does multiplication and division, which in a cockpit means fuel burn, rate of climb, ground speed, distance and unit conversion.

AOPA first, everyone else second

The earliest examples were built for members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Swisswatches Magazine cites production records showing 1,100 pieces made between July 1954 and January 1955, carrying no Breitling name at all, and notes the reference 806 designation appearing on the final AOPA batch in October 1955. From there the 806 became the standard production Navitimer, powered by the column wheel Venus 178. The AOPA winged shield stayed on dials until around 1965, when the twin jets logo replaced it, per aBlogtoWatch.

Why the Eyes Got Bigger

The Big Eyes name is not a collector's flourish, it describes a measurable change. From late 1968 Breitling enlarged the three registers from roughly 8mm to roughly 9mm across, lengthening the subdial hands to suit, a change Watchfid documents alongside the red markers added at the 10 and 36 positions on the slide rule. aBlogtoWatch describes the same one millimetre increase as a shift to a more function forward look.

One millimetre sounds like nothing until you see it on this dial. The Navitimer is the busiest legible watch of its era, with two slide rule scales, a minute track and three counters competing for the same 41mm. Growing the registers gives the eye something to land on before it has to negotiate the rest. The dials of this period also simplified around them, dropping the full set of Arabic numerals for a single 12 and printed line indices.

The 36: A Valjoux Where a Venus Used to Be

By 1970 the Venus 178 was drying up. Venus had been absorbed into Valjoux, and WatchBase states plainly that the 7736 was used because of a shortage of supply of the Venus movement, with the 806-36 produced in relatively small numbers from 1970 through to the end of the original company.

The Valjoux 7736 is hand wound, 31mm across, 17 jewels, beating at 18,000 vibrations per hour with a 45 hour power reserve, and it drives counters for seconds, minutes and hours, per WatchBase. The important difference from the Venus is architectural. The 7736 is cam operated rather than column wheel, using a shuttle cam to route the start, stop and reset commands. It is a simpler, cheaper, thoroughly robust way to build a chronograph, and it gives the pushers a firmer, more mechanical action than the Venus. At 18,000 vibrations per hour the chronograph seconds hand steps five times a second, so timing to a fifth of a second is exactly what the dial promises and delivers.

Forty One Millimetres of Late Breitling

The case is stainless steel at 41mm with 22mm lugs, a plexiglass crystal, a closed back and piston pushers at two and four, as WatchBase lists. Water resistance is essentially nil, which is honest for a watch built for a cockpit rather than a marina. By 1970 the bezel edge had gone from beaded to the gear toothed profile that grips through a glove, a design aBlogtoWatch notes is still the Navitimer default today.

The context matters. Breitling ceased operations in 1979 during the quartz crisis, with Ernest Schneider acquiring the brand and trademarks, according to Swisswatches Magazine. The 806-36 is therefore the hand wound Navitimer being built while the ground gave way underneath it.

Final Thoughts

What we love here is that every oddity has a reason behind it. The subdials are big because a pilot glancing down needed them to be. The movement is a Valjoux because the Venus had run out. The bezel is toothed because gloves slip on beads. Nothing about the 806-36 was styled for effect, and the result is a dial that still reads instantly fifty years on, wrapped around a movement built to be repaired rather than admired. It is the Navitimer with the aviation brief taken literally, right at the end of the era that could still take it that way.

References

1. Phillips, Breitling Navitimer: The Early Years: https://www.phillips.com/article/37929545/breitling-navitimer-the-early-years
2. Swisswatches Magazine, A brief history of the Breitling Navitimer: https://swisswatches-magazine.com/history-of-breitling-navitimer/
3. aBlogtoWatch, Time Machines: The Breitling Navitimer Ref. 806: https://www.ablogtowatch.com/time-machines-appreciating-the-power-of-gentle-evolution-with-the-breitling-navitimer-ref-806-watch/
4. Watchfid, Breitling Navitimer 806 Big Eyes: https://www.watchfid.com/watch/breitling-navitimer-806-big-eyes/
5. WatchBase, Breitling 806-36 Navitimer 806 Valjoux 7736: https://watchbase.com/breitling/navitimer/806-36
6. WatchBase, Valjoux caliber 7736: https://watchbase.com/valjoux/caliber/7736
7. Craft and Tailored, 1970 Breitling Navitimer Ref. 806 Big Eye Twin Jets: https://www.craftandtailored.com/products/1968-breitling-navitimer-ref-806-aopa-gilt-dial

• Case and Strap are in very good condition, sharp lugs
• Strap in excellent condition
• Watch serviced in 2020

• Dial & hands excellent condition