1962 Breitling AVI ref. 765, 42mm. case. Manual winding movement cal. Venus 178.

In the mid 1950s, Breitling developed a military aviation-spec chronograph the reference 765. It was a large chronograph, with 22mm. size lugs, a rotating 12 hour steel and 41diameter bezel. In the beginning of 1960s, Breitling changed the black sub-dials to white ones. In 1965, the company decided to update the model but maintained the case, dial and hands. The AVI designation was replaced by CP which stands for Co-Pilot. Then, the material of the bezel was changed from steel to anodized aluminum, besides, Breitling introduced two different types of bezels: a half black and half white bezel and a full black one.

Breitling modified the movement to a 15 minute counter instead of the 30 minute, the 15 minute counter was done because Aircrews had 15 minutes to get an aircraft ready for takeoff and this allowed them to keep track of those 15 minutes easier than with a 30 minute counter.

Breitling has been a leading innovator in high quality stopwatches and chronographs and helped define how chronographs look and function until today.

Breitling launched the first wrist chronograph with a pusher at 2:00 in 1915, presented the first dual pusher wrist chronograph with pushers at 2:00 and 4:00 in 1933 and was one of the first manufacturers to recognize the need of early aviators for wrist watches incorporating such devices.

In 1942 Breitling introduced the Chronomat, the worlds first Smart Watch, a chronograph with a rotating logarithmic slide rule that allowed complex calculations with the turn of your fingers.

Throughout the 1930s to 50s, Breitling continued creating chronographs with different scales to suit different professions, such as tachymeters for production engineers and drivers, and pulsometers for doctors.