Venus 178
ProbableThe movement of the vintage Navitimer, and the reason a 1950s and 1960s Navitimer is a hand-wound watch. A bought-in ébauche finished by Breitling: expect a Venus architecture, not a Breitling-designed layout. The Cosmonaute variant drives a 24-hour dial from the same base, which is a dial-and-motion-work change rather than a different caliber.
Specifications
- Movement manufacturer
- Venus
- Winding
- manual
- Complications
- Chronograph · Column wheel · 30-minute counter · 12-hour counter
Architecture
Manually wound column-wheel chronograph with three registers, from the Venus ébauche house of Moutier.
Service practice
Venus was absorbed into Valjoux and the 178's tooling passed on, so parts have circulated for decades and a rebuilt example may contain components from other watches. Normal for the caliber and an originality observation rather than an authenticity one.
References using this caliber
- Breitling 806Factory
Navitimer · Whole production
- Breitling 806.24Factory
Navitimer · Whole production
- Breitling 809Factory
Navitimer · Whole production
Provenance of this record
Sources & Evidence
Ranfft Watch Movement Archive
Dr. Roland Ranfft (archived and maintained by volunteers)
- Accessed
- 2026-08-18
Cited for
Breitling collector research on Navitimer generations and reference numbering
Collector communities and specialist dealers
- Accessed
- 2026-08-18
Cited for
Last verified: Not yet reviewed