1960s Jean Richard Airstar Chronograph

1960s Jean Richard Airstar Chronograph

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An extremely rare and highly coveted 1960s Aquastar Airstar by Jean Richard with the standard Airstar chrono diver shaped case design measuring 36mm excluding crown.

After some careful research and comparing other case designs, this case has different pusher tubes and therefore uses a type of "mini pusher" design which judging by the serial range, is much lower than other known Airstars out there, and could of been a one off test or even prototype variant that didn't make it to market. This leads me to believe also that the dial design was earlier, as it features an original dial without the outer numeral scale on the outside of the dial. The "Airstar" logo is also floating above the hour counter which makes this an extremely rare find.

The caseback is flat, and is notched rather than having the serrated star edge that is typical of this model. It has an early style Airstar engraving in the centre. A 15XXXX serial range with a "72" designating the movement caliber below it.

The handset is also homogenous and fits the earlier profile of this more minimal dial design by Jean Richard, the hands being more pencil and reaching to the outer minute track.

I have included a few recent examples in our pictures of known examples, one sold by our friends at Rarebirds. This starts a long study of the different dial variants out there like the "solo" Jean Richard and earlier dials like this one which we could only find one other owned by a French Collector.

There are not many examples of the standard Airstars out there, so this makes us think it is something quite special.

This watch came out of a collection in Germany.