Breitling - Roots and wings

In 1884, Léon Breitling decided to devote himself to creating timepieces marked with the seal of high precision, chronographs and counters. The rapid success of his business forced him to leave Saint-Imier to set up his factory in the watch capital of La Chaux-de-Fonds. The excellent workmanship and growing reputation for reliability appealed to the most demanding customers: racing drivers, explorers and the intrepid pilots of the early days of aviation. Breitling produced a succession of innovations and patents, such as the device for adding successive times, or the first cockpit chronographs. At the beginning of the 1950s, the Navitimer with its two logarithmic rules allowed pilots to make vital calculations for aerial navigation in a flash, from conversion from miles to kilometers to the rates of ascent or descent. Commercial flight was growing and Breitling became its first supplier. In 1969, the brand showed its pioneering spirit by presenting the “Chrono-Matic”, predecessor of the famous Chronomat. Today Breitling still pursues that quest of accuracy completely independently – the Manufacture remains one of the rare watch brands to enjoy absolute freedom of action because it is not tied to one of the large groups in the sector: the triumph of daring and autonomy.

Chronomat GMT: far from the eyes, close to the heart

A unidirectional bezel with intelligent double time zone, chronograph and date functions: this catalogue of specifics is enough to get adventurers and globe-trotters raring to go. Driven by the new Manufacture Breitling 04 caliber, the Chronomat GMT model possesses two central hour hands. A simple action suffices to set local time and date instantly while keeping 24-hour display of the reference time, and as if that wasn’t enough, without losing the accuracy of the minute hand! For this brand with its long-standing roots in aviation, it was the least they could do; an exploit made possible by a patented system using a differential which dissociates the local time hour hand from the gear train during time zone resetting. Once back in place, the two hours hands resume their perfectly synchronized motion. This intuitive GMT function is associated with a classic chronograph powered with a column wheel. Lastly, a comfortable power reserve of 70 hours avoids unpleasant surprises in the heat of the action.

Transocean Chrononograph: in a class of its own

Typically Breitling, the Transocean Chrononograph revives the three aviation legends which were the stuff of dreams during the sixties: the Boeing 707, the DC-8 and the Caravelle. In those happy days, elegantly attired travellers, sporting wristwatches of sober and refined design, strode confidently to the departure gate. During their long haul flights, airliners outdid each other in luxury in the night sky to connect to another continent. What better tribute to this golden age of civil aviation than a chronograph with a refined look that gracefully complements the precision of the Manufacture Breitling 01 caliber, the high performance automatic chronograph movement developed and produced by the company. For twenty-first century passengers, it offers a quarter-second chronograph, with 30-minute and 12-hour cumulating counters as well as the valuable date display. In its steel or pink gold case, there is surely no more elegant travelling companion to take to the far corners of the world.