The history of the Cosmonaute begins in 1959, when Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carpenter was selected to be part of the Mercury program. He contacted Breitling, requesting a 24-hour version of the Navitimer, most probably finding the number of operations executable through the revolving bezel extremely useful for space flight. In fact, the instruction booklet accompanying the present lot details 16 different types of mathematical operations (including mean speed calculations, division, multiplication, and vertical distance calculations) that can be managed with the bezel.

In 1961, the 24-hour Navitimer was introduced, still bearing the Navitimer reference 806 and powered by a Venus caliber 178. The name Cosmonaute was registered in June 1961, and production of reference 809 began soon after. A year later, it became the first Breitling in space, on the wrist of Lt. Carpenter. During the 1960s, a number of different variations of bezel and dial layouts were adopted, most notably the old “beady” bezel was abandoned in 1964, and the “Twin Planes” logo saw its inception in 1965. The production would cease in 1979 due to the quartz crisis.

While the present piece will immediately captivate the attention of the collector due to its absolutely New Old Stock condition, there is another extremely attractive trait hidden inside the case of this watch. While most Cosmonaute modes are powered by the Venus caliber 178, a very restricted number of examples, bearing the reference number 809-36, are instead powered by the Valjoux caliber 7736. Indeed, the present piece is a NOS representative of this extremely rare variation.