Horological Meandering

amanico
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An unusual Breitling: The Royal Canadian Air Force.

For those who are not very familiar with Breitling, there are some unavoidable models, maybe too unavoidable to be really tempting, like the iconic Navitimer, or the mythic Superocean Diving watch ( time only ) which is a contender to the Rolex Subs ,and even closer, to the Blancpain Fifity Fathoms.

This sounds like a wrong statement, as the Navitimers are watches to be seen and felt in the flesh, to be fully appreciated, and then, to understand why so many people are fatally attracted by them.

The Breitling I want to introduce you now is something very different.

Still, it is a Chronograph, but a special one, as it is a Monopusher, it is much smaller than a contemporeanean Navitimer, and the dial is something really special.

- The dial:

A white dialed Military Chrono is not that common.

It has to be precised that some armies opted for such a dial, white and unmarked, and when we look around we some very similar examples.

The Lemania, made for the British Hydrographic Service ( HS ) ( Picture to be credited to Zaf )



Do you notice the same painted numbers, at the exception of the 6 and 12, which are luminous ( tritium ) as well as the dots all around the unsigned dial ( for the Breitiling ) and signed dial ( for the Lemania )?

The pointed skeleted hands are identical, too, in both cases.

Same thing for the Omega, which was also made for the Royal Canadian Air Force ( Credit picture: Watchyouwant ) :



Another Omega RCAF, but with an unsigned sial, this time ( Credit pictures: Zaf Basha ), coming in a 38 mm case:







A red or orange second hand gives the colorful touch of life to the dial. Amusing but nice, too.



The fact that it is unsigned on the Breitling is really cool, as everyone who looks at it wonders from what brand it comes.

A bit of mystery is never bad, don't you think?

- The case:

This is a stainless steel 36, 5 mm case, which looks small on the paper, but which is not in the real life, certainly due to the white dial and the lack of bezel.

The surprise comes to the fact that it is a monopusher, located at 2 o' clock.



Once again, it is far from being the only one to come in this " monopusher " configuration, as the Lemania pictured above shared this particularity.

It taes a while to get used to the lack of the 2d pusher, which is usually located at 4 o'clock, but once you are, you begin to appreciate this specifity more than you are disturbed by this " castration ".

On my example, it seems that it was never polished, as the waqtch wears some obvious sogns of ( military ) life.

Which adds a supplement of soul to this tool watch.

You will also notice the overdimensionned signed crown which seems to be original, as I saw the same on the few ones which were posted on the net.



A rare hint which links the watch to Breitling!

- The Case Back and movement:

A screw in case back, which bears the military engravings, and the name of the watch brand:



Signed outside, but also inside, with the case number:



The case back protects the signed movement, a Valjoux 236, which is hacking, and allows a precise set of the time.



It is the first time that I try to make some adjustments on the accuracy of the watch, as it gained some 5 minutes per day, and I managed, proudly, to low it to 15 secs per day.



I think it will need a good service, but for the moment I enjoy it without moderation.

As to conclude, I'd say that I fell in love with this white beauty, because it is an original military watch, and also because it changes from the Breitlings we use to see.

As previously said this is quite a rare watch, which was made in the second half of the 60ies, for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

A watch which gives you a lot of pleasure once on the wrist, and which will end my thema of military Chronographs, unless I find a military Longines 13 ZN...



Looking forward to reading your comments,

Best,

Nicolas.

This message has been edited by amanico on 2012-10-02 12:24:35 This message has been edited by amanico on 2012-10-02 12:27:41 This message has been edited by amanico on 2012-10-05 23:41:17

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