I recently made an interesting Breitling AVI 765 purchase and wanted to share some of the information that came to light whilst discussing and assessing this piece as well as some of the further research I have done on the subject.

Breitling AVI with possibly Transitional Bezel.

The watch in question is a reference 765 AVI with Reverse Panda dial commonly known as a Raquel Welch (Pay close attention to the bezel) .

The Bezel is fully numbered 1 through to 11 unlike my other (normal) AVI which has a dash and number in turn shown here side by side for comparison...

Fully Numbered Bezel on the Left and the more commonly seen bezel on the Right.

My initial thought ran to that this was just an earlier bezel from an all Black AVI but I noted that it couldn't be due to the fact it has a Serrated (not Beaded) edge...

At this point it was mentioned that this could be a previously undocumented transitional bezel...

We have potentially all seen these before but not paid close enough attention as you can't always see the serrated edge in face on photos and therefore pass it off as an incorrect earlier Beaded bezel (which in reality would be worth quite a lot loose as a separate part).

So what is it transitioning and when is it from? It is known the 'Raquel Welch' AVI ran from circa 1962-1964 and although the front of the bezel bares a lot of resemblance to the earlier All Black AVIs I would say these pieces are possibly from late 1964 towards the end of the steel bezel reverse panda 765 production before we see the Black bezel 765 CP.
The serial number of my piece is 989xxx and below is a picture showing 6 other examples I can find of which the top 3 we know are also 989xxx serial numbers dating them all to 1964.

I should point out that these other examples all have the earlier Small 15 minute counter sub dial where as my piece has the Large 15 minute counter. It is known that the Larger sub dial is introduced in 1963 running through 1964 and we also see AVIs from 1965 now as well. My watch is 989xxx serial number and therefore from 1964, so this dial would also be correct for this production year.
With regards to the dial timeline it is my suggestion that possibly the Small sub counter was used on all AVIs throughout its production, 1962 - 1964. As previously stated the Larger sub counter comes into play by 1964 and into the late AVIs we now see from 1965 ready for the introduction of the 765 CP with Black bezel AKA Jean Claude Killy.

Further investigation led me to checking the catalogues of the period. Here are images from a Trautmann brochure showing the AVI with the Fully numbered bezel. This was likely released in 1964 as it also features the Transitional 806 Navitimer only produced towards the end of 1963.

I have also found this Wakmann catalogue showing the fully numbered bezel. I am unsure of the exact print date (some sources saying 1959) though the catalogue features the 1963 Transitional Navitimer and Cosmonaute as well as the steel bezel Unitime from mid 60s.
Also featured are the late 50s SuperOceans suggesting the SuperOcean 2005 (Mid 60s, earliest I'm aware of is late 64) hadn't quite been released yet.

So my thoughts are that these Fully Numbered Steel Serrated edge bezels are possibly Transitional pieces that were produced for a short period. Most of what I am finding suggests that they were introduced in 1964 before Breitling released the Fully numbered All Black Bezel 765 CP Co Pilot in 1965.
It is also perfectly feasible that this Bezel was available throughout 1962 - 1964 though I am yet to be shown an example dating from early in the AVI ‘Raquel Welch’ production.
Either way the Fully Numbered Serrated steel Bezel versions seem to be less common and previously overlooked…

I hope this has been an interesting read, enjoy the gallery below.

All the best S...