Breitling - Royal Canadian Air Force
The Canadian Air Force ordered watches from Breitling for their pilots towards the end of the 60's. It is a model that was exclusively intended for military purposes, and was never available on the open market.

They used the principle of the single button Chronograph as with the other Chronos of the RCAF at this time (Omega, Rodania, Universal Geneve). It was decided to use the Valjoux 236 movement with ratchet. The white dial on the watch remained unsigned. Crown, inside caseback and movement however, were signed Breitling. The diameter of the watch without crown is approximately 36.5 mm. Presumably worn on a NATO strap.

Engraved on the caseback:

D.N.D (Department of National Defense)
SER. IL 1805/67
STOCK NO 6645/21/802/1267


Stock number (NATO stock code) 6645-21-802-1267 (NATO individual device number for this type of chronograph, 21 is the country code for Canada within NATO.
Breitling





Rodania













The other watches of this type used the following movements;

Omega: Lemania 15 CHT
Breitling: Valjoux 236
Rodania: Venus 175
Universal Geneve: Venus 175
Birks: Venus 175
Lemania (?): Lemania 15 CHT

Werner, beutiful piece.

Werner, fantastic find.

Being a Breitling fan and a Canadian, I've got to find one of these.

I bet it will be a long time before I do find one.

I too have a dirty dozen complete collection.
Dave

quote:

I too have a dirty dozen complete collection.

..brothers on arms, so to speak, congratulations Dave, considering there are no two handfull of people worldwide who have the complete WWW collection.
You had better hurry up finding a Breitling, as the prices are going through the roof. I bid on an RCAF Omega at a reputable auction house, I backed out at £5000 ... Im still waiting for my Rodania to arrive, thats why the pictures are so poor.

Best Regards and a happy new year to one and all.

Werner

A very nice RCAF Swiss chronograph Werner, could you explain to me the significance of the longer minute marks on the right-hand register at 3,6, and 9?

Larry

quote:

I too have a dirty dozen complete collection.
Dave

Dave, would you care to share a photo of your "dirty dozen" collection.
I´ve only found reference to these (and I know most of the owners personally) ;

Portugal 1 Owned by a collector in Portugal.
Japan 1 Owned by a collector in Japan.
Netherlands 1 Owned by a collector from the Netherlands.
UK 1 Owned by a collector in the UK.
UK 1 Owned by a collector in the UK.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector and military wristwatch expert in Germany.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector in Germany.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector in Germany.
Belgium 1 Owned by a collector in Belgium.

quote:

A very nice RCAF Swiss chronograph Werner, could you explain to me the significance of the longer minute marks on the right-hand register at 3,6, and 9?

Larry

Larry, I´m working on it

Thank you Warner, look forward to seeing what you can find out.

Larry

Well Larry, someone on another forum came up with this feasible answer;
The Bulova Sky King Chronograph, for instance, had the markings at 4-8-12, rather than 3-6-9: this took a while to figure out.

Basically, if you are flying, for instance, on bearing 220°, make a 90° turn while starting the Chronograph. At the first hash, turn another 90°, at the second another 90°, and at the final hash another 90°. If there is no wind housing your plane off course, you will have flown a box with 4 equidistant legs and will be back on 220°: if you are on a different heading, say 230°, you can measure the deviation in your course by calculating your speed, the length of the legs you flew boxing the course, and calculate how to correct your course to arrive where you want to be, rather than where you are currently flying. Not so much a problem over landscapes with landmarks and air traffic controllers but a major necessity flying, for instance, over water before anyone even contemplated GPS.

The longer the legs, the more accurate your calculation is: of course, at the same time, the more fuel you use to figure this out. Some countries trained for 3 minutes, others for 4, but the basic principle is the same.


Sounds good to me!

Werner

OK Werner. Here are some pics of my dirty dozen/

Again

And again

Yet again

and finally

pretty amazing Dave!! Congratulations!!

Very, very nice Dave, which direction are you collecting now, or are you taking the mil-watches as they come?
The list should be ammended, it should look like this

Portugal 1 Owned by a collector in Portugal.
Japan 1 Owned by a collector in Japan.
Netherlands 1 Owned by a collector from the Netherlands.
UK 1 Owned by a collector in the UK.
UK 1 Owned by a collector in the UK.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector and military wristwatch expert in Germany.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector in Germany.
Germany 1 Owned by a collector in Germany.
Belgium 1 Owned by a collector in Belgium.
Canada 1 Owned by a collector in Canada.
Best Regards

Werner thank you for your answer to my question, it explains everything, one never quits learning on these forums.


Larry

Hi Werner

Thanks for the info about the dirty dozen "club". I had fun over the many years it took to collect them.
I don't seem to have much of a focus collecting military watches. I seem to go after watches I find very interesting. Right now I'm looking for a 12 slot case for my dirty dozen.
I really enjoy seeing the posts of all your watches Werner.
Dave

Dave, here´s a link to german ebay, a lot to choose from, but you will cetainlly also find them in the US of A. watch cases

and here are 139 others in Canada watch boxes in Canada

...and Dave, if you send Maurice M. Henry a mail and a picture of your collection of the 12, he´d be delighted to add them to the rest. Here´s his mail address. Contact: mmh365 [at] gmail.com ... If you go to his reference site for these watches, you can take a look at all the others... WWW site(scroll all the way down to the bottom.) He´s doing a very good job on other watches as well, look here;
All others

I (and I´m not alone with my assumption) consider it THE reference site for these Mil-watches!

Best Regards

This is probably the highest amount for a Grana, ever achieved;
Winning bid: GBP 4,212.00

Approximately US $6,438.04

Grana http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQU...&hash=item1c22be09fb

That's amazing. Somebody is probably close to a complete "dirty dozen" collection.