Breitling SuperOcean ref 2005 1965 *MINT*

SuperOcean ref 2005 from 1965,
Heavily , by Breitling, modified venus 188 movement
The large center hand counts minutes, not seconds
the small lume dot at 6 shows the Diving Timer chrono has been paused, the window would show a large lume dot when active .- and no dot when the timer has been switched off. Quite unique until a recent JLC release.

Almost impossible to find one nowadays in this condition

Description

This vintage Breitling (1965) has a really interesting chronograph function.  The large hand with the square on the end is not a seconds hand, in fact it is a minute counter hand.  When the chronograph is activated, it moves slowly, one minute at a time, and there is no seconds register.

Also, because it is not apparently obvious that the chronograph is working without a seconds hand, the aperture above 6 o’clock fills in with a black disc when activated.  If this isn’t a cool and interesting chronograph, we don’t know what is.

Not too many of these SuperOcean ref. 2005 survived until today, even less with all-original movements, the non-screwdown crown led to a lot of humidity damage and quite a bit of rusty movements

The movement used in the ref. 2005 is actually a well known one, the Venus 188 chronograph movement, but heavily modified by Breitling, it measured elapsed diving time in minutes (the rhomboid-tipped hand), a display at 6 is blank when the diving timer is inactive, shows a big green lume dot when engaged, a small lume dot when paused.

Great example of a very early dive watch