1960s vintage Breitling Top-Time ‘Reverse Panda’ Chronograph watch

Date:           1965

Case:            Gold-plated/Stainless steel, 35mm

Movement: Venus 188

Dial:             Black dial, white subsidiary dials

Lugs:            18mm

An iconic Breitling Top-Time watch, the model worn by Sean Connery as James Bond in “Thunderball” (1965)!

A 1965, gold plated and stainless steel vintage Breitling Top-Time ‘Reverse Panda’ Chronograph watch. The case measures 35mm in diameter with 18mm lug size. The case is signed Breitling Swiss Made, reference 2003 to the back, and numbered to the inside dating the watch to 1965. The manual wind, calibre Venus 188, movement is signed Breitling Watch Limited, with 17 jewels. The black dial has raised gilt indices, with white subsidiary dials at 3 and 9 for seconds and 30 minute recording and fine gilt ‘luminous’ hands. The dial is signed Breitling Geneve above the centre, with Top-Time below.

Venus 188 Chronograph movement

The Venus 188 was a revolutionary cam-switching chronograph movement design introduced in 1948. It was cheaper to build than column wheel chronograph movements and laid the foundation for the Valjoux 7750, one of the most popular movements ever produced. When Venus was taken over by Valjoux the 188 design was lightly modified with a mobile stud carrier and re-launched as the Valjoux 7730 in 1966. It was further refined as the Valjoux 7733 before automatic winding was added for the Valjoux 7750.

Much like the Carrera for Heuer, the Top Time became the flagship product for Breitling in the early 1960s. The naming was targeted at a younger audience, to make chronographs more fashionable than just being a standard tool watch. This deliberate marketing angle was clear in the manufacturer’s advertising of the time, which also communicated the many available options, both in terms of case materials and dial configurations. And clearly the contrast between the reverse panda dials and the (plated) yellow-gold case works extremely well.