Venus 179

The Venus calibres 179, 185, and 190 are chronograph movements from the 1940's and 1950's.

These were high-quality calibres, with Rattrapante sweep seconds operated with a button located co-axially in the crown. The two calibres are very similar, both being hand winding chronographs with Breguet spiral springs and Glucydur balance sized at a large 14 ligne. Venus Calibre 179 features only a minute counter dial, while Venus Calibre 185 has both minute and hour counter dials. The Venus 179/185/190 family was closely related to the plain, non-Pattrapante Venus 175 family.

These movements were well regarded in their time and have occasionally surfaced since then. Notably, a small quantity of 179 and 185 calibres were discovered in the 1990's and these were used in extremely limited series of watches from Girard Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin, Panerai and Parmigiani around the year 2000. Parmigiani at least added Incabloc shock protection with two more jewels.

Variants

• 179 - split second, minute counter
• 185 - split second, minute, hour counter
• 190 - split second, minute, hour counter, date, moon phase

Description: Hand winding pillar wheel chronograph Glucydur balance wheel Breguet spiral mainspring Functions: Hours, minutes Small seconds at 9:00 Rattrapante sweep seconds 30-minutes counter, 12-hours counter Data: 14 lignes D 31.6 mm, H 8.2 mm 19 jewels 18,000 A/h Power reserve 44h Production period: 1940's to 1950's