A TEST OF THETRANSOCEANCHRONOGRAPHUNITIME, PLUS A HISTORYOF BREITLING

FROM THE PAGES OF WATCHTIME MAGAZINE

THE WORLD OF F INE WATCHES

SPOTLIGHTwww.watchtime.com

BREITLINGBREITLING

BY JENS KOCH

PHOTOS BY NIK SCHÖLZEL

Breitling’s new Transocean Chronograph Unitime shows thetime in 24 time zones at a singleglance. How did this global traveler perform in our test?

Pros+ Attractive design+ World time is simple to reset.

+ Precise rate

Cons– The time of day ishard to read.

– The watch may beuncomfortable on asmaller wrist.

See the WORLD

TESTBreitling Transocean Chronograph Unitime

February 2013 WatchTime 5

look. But the extremely large diameter(46 mm) and the high-quality processingof all components establish this model ascontemporary. We liked the well-designedhands, the applied indices, the carefullypolished case, the impeccably cut strapand even the buckle’s prong, which ismilled from a solid block of metal. Therewere, however, considerably more toolmarks than we expected to see on the in-ner surface of the buckle, which has thebrand’s logo engraved in raised relief.

The prong-buckle closure suits thevintage design. In our opinion, this type

world-time watch shows the time simul-taneously in the world’s time zones usingtwo rings. One ring is marked with thenames of cities representing the timezones, and the other with hour numerals.To see the time in any of the time zones,you find the corresponding city name andread the hour numeral that is next to it.

Breitling introduced its world timer,the Transocean Chronograph Unitime,last year at Baselworld. The watch has apatented world-time mechanism and amanufacture movement, the B 05, whichis based on the B 01 chronograph move-ment that Breitling introduced in 2009.

The Unitime traces its roots to a1950s model of the same name. This self-winding watch with world-time indicatorand date display, whose birth coincidedwith the start of the jet age, was designedfor frequent travelers such as airplanepilots.

The new Unitime, with its pale browncalfskin strap, has an attractive, vintage

THE WORLD-TIME FUNCTION OF THE UNITIME IS THE MOST COMPLEX ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONGIVEN TO CALIBER B 01 SO FAR.

The wide hooparound the movementholds the rings for the

world-time display.

TESTBreitling Transocean Chronograph Unitime

of closure is easier to use than a double-folding clasp. Only a very short piece ofmetal comes in contact with your skin.Unlike a folding clasp, nothing canpress uncomfortably against a bonywrist joint. The softly padded calfskinstrap also adds to the wearing comfort.But this watch doesn’t fit properly on asmaller wrist, where it has a tendency toslide back and forth.

We also found that the daytime legibil-ity could be better. There’s not enoughcontrast between the steel hands and thesilver-colored dial. And the numerals onthe 24-hour disk, as well as the names ofthe cities, are by necessity printed in rathersmall type. However, the date display iseasy to read. At night, luminous materialon the hour and minutes hands combineswith glow-in-the-dark dots at the hour in-dices and a double luminous dot at 12o’clock to provide good legibility.

Using the Unitime is quite straightfor-ward. Everything is set using the crown,which is not threaded and is easy to

SPECS

BREITLING TRANSOCEAN CHRONOGRAPH UNITIME

Manufacturer: Breitling Chronométrie,Allée du Laser 10, CH-2300 La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Reference number: AB0510/A732

Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date;chronograph with counters for 30elapsed minutes and 12 elapsed hours;displays 24 time zones

Movement:Manufacture caliber B 05,automatic, COSC-certified; 28,800 vph,56 jewels, fine adjustment via index andeccentric screw, Kif shock absorption,Glucydur balance, 70-hour power reserve;diameter = 40 mm

Case: Stainless-steel case with domedsapphire crystal that’s nonreflective onboth sides, fully threaded stainless-steelback; water resistant to 100 meters

Strap and clasp: Calfskin strap, stainless-steel prong buckle

Rate test:(Deviations in seconds per 24 hours)With chronograph switched off / onDial up +1 +2

Dial down +1 +3

Crown up +2 +1

Crown down +6 +5

Crown left +4 +6

Crown right +2 0

Greatest deviation of rate 5 6

Average deviation +2.7 +2.8

Average amplitude:

Flat positions 293° 271°

Hanging positions 277° 235°

Dimensions: Diameter = 46 mm, height =15 mm, weight = 131 g

Variations:With stainless-steel bracelet($11,200); rose-gold case with crocodilestrap with fold-over clasp ($30,965)

Price: $10,715

grasp. The watch’s world-time functionoperates quite simply. When you travel toanother time zone, you pull the crownout to its first position, then turn it for-ward or back to simultaneously adjustthe hour hand, in one-hour increments,the city ring and the 24-hour ring, whileautomatically adjusting the date to the lo-cal time. The central hour hand alwayspoints to the time in the zone that you’vespun to the top of the dial. You adjust thetime display with the crown pulled out toits second position using the hour andminutes hands. The seconds hand stopsto allow synchronization with a radiotime signal and the 24-hour ring turnsalong with the central hands, while thecity ring stays in place. The chrono-graph’s pushers run smoothly and requirejust the right amount of force to operate.To reset the date, reposition the hourhand in one-hour increments, which alsochanges the world-time display. You canmove the hand in either direction, so youcan reset the date quite quickly even

The chronographpushers run smoothly

and have only a little play.

TESTBreitling Transocean Chronograph Unitime

dent Medvedev decreed the countrywould remain on daylight saving timepermanently. Needless to say, no world-time watch can automatically respond tothese unpredictable, human choices.

THE WATCH’S CHRONOGRAPH func-tion dates back just four years. That waswhen Breitling, realizing that ETA move-ments and components would soon be inshort supply, introduced chronographcaliber 01, its first in-house movement.This debut was followed by variationswith a second time zone (caliber 04) anda hand-wound version, caliber 02, with a24-hour display. (Caliber 03 has not yetbeen unveiled.) The world-time functionof the Unitime is the most complex addi-tional function given to caliber 01 so far.

Caliber 05 has vertical coupling, acolumn wheel and bidirectional winding.The movement has a stop-seconds func-tion, the date switches instantaneously,and the escape wheel is protected againstshocks. Its system of fine adjustment, via

which the wearer should read the hoursduring daylight saving time.

But Breitling doesn’t solve severalother fundamental problems that besetworld-time watches, for example, timezones that differ from their neighbors byonly half an hour, as is the case in India,Venezuela and parts of Australia. Fur-thermore, only 24 cities are shown on thedial, so you must know that Detroit is inthe same time zone as New York. You’llalso need to know that you have to setyour watch to Mexico City if you want itto show the correct time in Chicago.

Several other difficulties complicatematters. Not all countries in a particulartime zone follow the same policy with re-spect to daylight saving time: Europe, forinstance, observes it, while most Africancountries don’t. Another problem ariseswhen individual countries decide to makechanges in their timekeeping policies.Russia, for example, may soon decide toreinstate spring and fall time changes,which it suspended in 2011, when Presi-

7 WatchTime February 2013

though there is no rapid-reset mecha-nism. Resetting the time zone doesn’tchange the positions of the minutes andseconds hands: the watch’s movementsimply continues to run. The time zonecan even be reset while the chronographis switched on.

Breitling’s world-time mechanismworks well. The only possible mishapcould occur if you were to pull the crownout too far when you are resetting thetime zone. This would put the crown inthe time-setting position, where it stopsthe seconds hand. If you turned thecrown then, you would unintentionallyshift the position of the minutes hand.This mistake cannot occur on a world-time watch that uses two pushers to movethe time zones forward and backward.

The Unitime has a feature seldomseen on world-time watches: indicators –in this case, red suns – that show whichcountries observe daylight saving time.The suns are placed one hour to the rightof the city names, marking the points at

The handsome claspwith Breitling’s logo

index and eccentric screw, isn’t on a parwith the best of haute horlogerie, but thismovement has nonetheless proven itsworth because the accuracy of allBreitling calibers is COSC-certified. Weespecially liked the long (nearly three-day) power reserve: if you take off yourUnitime on Friday evening, you’ll find itmerrily running when you reach for itagain on Monday morning. Breitling hasextended the length of its guarantee tofive years for watches that house thebrand’s own movements, a decision thattestifies to the company’s confidence in itsproducts.

The Unitime’s movement is hiddenbeneath the steel caseback. This decisionis hard to understand, especially since theTransocean Chronograph without worldtime has a transparent back. It is the onlyBreitling model manufactured in unlimit-ed series production that is so equipped.Perhaps the explanation relates to thewide metal hoop that surrounds the basicmovement and holds the rings for thecities and the 24-hour scale.

This holder is adorned with a sunburstpattern. The rest of the movement is em-bellished in the usual manner: sunburst onthe rotor, Geneva waves on the bridge forthe self-winding mechanism, polishedheads on the screws, and beveled and pol-ished edges on the round outer sideswhere the beveling and polishing can beeasily accomplished by machine. Thestamped steel levers of the chronographmechanism aren’t quite so attractive:they’re polished, but they look as simpleas their counterparts on the ETA 7750.

Breitling makes its own plates. Itswatchmakers insert the jewels and as-

semble the movement. The balancewheel, which has five spokes, was alsomade in house. This means that Breitlingmatches each balance with its hairspring.This process is extremely important forthe accuracy of the watch’s rate. Very ex-act measuring devices must be used to as-sure that each hairspring is wed to theright balance.

We were, therefore, quite curious tosee what rate values our Witschi timingmachine (a Chronoscope X1) wouldfind. The test proved that this Breitlingchronometer deserves its COSC certifica-tion. With a calculated average gain of2.7 seconds per day, it came very close toperfect timekeeping. The rate was nearlyidentical when the chronograph wasswitched on. The greatest differenceamong the several positions was five sec-onds with the chronograph switched offand six seconds with it running: both val-ues are within the tolerances permittedfor an officially certified chronometer.The amplitude declines rather far in thehanging positions with the chronographswitched on, although it never drops crit-ically low.

Of course, another important numberfor every watch is the one on its price tag.We were pleased to see that Breitling isn’tsetting extremely high prices, as are somemanufacturers. The Transocean Chrono-graph Unitime costs $10,715, which is anappropriate price for a manufacturechronograph with a refined world-timedisplay and high-quality craftsmanship.With the sole exception of its less-than-ideal daytime legibility, there’s no reasonnot to take the Unitime along on futurejourneys around the globe.

THE UNITIME TAKES DAYLIGHT SAVINGTIME INTO ACCOUNT AND THEREFOREOFFERS AN ADVANTAGE OVER MANY OTHER WORLD-TIME WATCHES.

SCORES

BREITLING TRANSOCEAN CHRONOGRAPH UNITIME

Strap and clasp (max. 10 points): Thecalfskin strap is neatly crafted and theattractively polished prong buckle isadorned with the brand’s logo in raisedrelief, but tool marks left by the millingmachine were seen on the inner side. 8

Operation (5): Everything can be resetusing the easily grasped crown. Thechronograph’s pushers run smoothly. 5

Case (10): The case is neatly crafted andpolished; the sapphire crystal is hand-some and highly domed; the pushershave only a little play. 9

Design (15): The attractive vintagedesign harks back to Breitling’s history,but the watch’s size gives it acontemporary look. 14

Legibility (5): There’s not enoughcontrast between the hands and dial,and the lettering on the world-timedisplay is rather small. Luminous materialcontributes to good legibility in thedark. 3

Wearing comfort (10): The strap is softand supple, but this large watch doesn’tfit well on smaller wrists. 8

Movement (20):With vertical couplingand a column wheel, this manufacturemovement boasts state-of-the-artconstruction. World time is displayedeffectively. 18

Rate results (10): A very slight gain withand without the chronograph switchedon; the greatest deviation among thevarious positions remains within anacceptable range. 8

Overall value (15): The high quality ofthis watch, as well as comparison with itscompetitors, confirms that the cost-benefit ratio is good. 13

TOTAL: 86 POINTS

TESTBreitling Transocean Chronograph Unitime

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���������Through 125 years of ups and downs in the watch business, Breitling has persevered and innovated to solidify its status as a pioneer of

chronographs and watches for aviators.

Raquel Welchwears a Breitling in the 1967 film

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HISTORYBreitling

reitling has weatherednumerous crises in the course of its longhistory, but if not for the intervention ofthe Schneider family in 1979, this tradi-tional company, which was founded in1884, might have become a casualty ofthe quartz crisis like so many of its com-petitors. The brand, which celebrated its125th anniversary in 2009, would nothave even reached its 100th. A look in thepages of L’Information Horlogère Suisse,a newsletter for the Swiss watch industry,reveals that Breitling had completely sus-pended operations in 1978 after layingoff 24 workers, 18 in La Chaux-de-Fondsand six in Geneva. The reasons are un-derstandable, considering the turbulenceof the era and the serious illness of thefirm’s leader, Willy Breitling. Breitlingsold the firm to Ernest Schneider, propri-etor of the Sicura watch firm. In April1979, the two men signed an agreementthat allowed Schneider to take over thewell-known names “Breitling” and“Navitimer.” Willy Breitling died just onemonth later, ending one era of Breitlingwatches and beginning another.

The next phase began on November30, 1982, when the firm relocated toGrenchen and officially registered underthe name, “Breitling Montres S.A.”Schneider, who held a degree in engineer-ing and was an amateur pilot, had notbeen idle in the meantime. With his ex-tensive experience in microelectronics, heinitially decided to apply modern quartztechnology to the watches made underthe illustrious Breitling brand name. Thestrategy was successful, ushering in yearsof growth for the brand, and enabling itto continue its tradition as a supplier forthe aeronautics industry. The companyhas long since been entrusted into the ca-pable hands of Schneider’s son,Theodore, the owner, and Jean-Paul Gi-rardin, the CEO. Together they havepresided over Breitling’s most recentmilestone, the introduction of its first in-house movement, Caliber B01. This self-winding movement supports the compli-cation that has characterized the firm’shistory for more than a century: thechronograph.

COMPANY FOUNDER Léon Breitlingwas born on January 26, 1860 in Saint-Imier, in the Jura region of westernSwitzerland, to parents of German ex-traction. A large portion of that town’spopulation made its living from watch-making, and many worked at home, so itis no surprise that Breitling becameskilled in making mechanical compo-nents for timepieces at a very young age.Despite the crises that plagued this era,young Léon discovered an unquenchablelove for his craft, which prompted him tobegin a watchmaker’s apprenticeship.When he opted for a freelance career in1884, Switzerland was in the throes of asevere recession and many of his contem-poraries were leaving the country to seeka better life in America. But Breitlingcould not be persuaded to join them. In-stead, he opened a little atelier, where hespecialized in the construction of mod-ules for mechanical watch movements.The G. Léon Breitling watchmaking firmwent on to create its own timepieces,many of them chronographs, which wereincreasingly in demand for use in sportsand military and industrial applications.The numerous medals and certificatesthat Léon received at trade fairs and ex-positions confirmed that his productportfolio was warmly received.

The business quickly outgrew itssmall space in Saint-Imier. In his searchfor larger quarters, Breitling turned hisattention to the up-and-coming town ofLa Chaux-de-Fonds, which was closer tohis suppliers. He purchased a suitableplot of land on Rue Montbrillant andbuilt a new factory building there thatwas completed in 1892. The businessnow had a new home and a new name:

FROM THE BEGINNING, BREITLINGCONCENTRATED ON THE

MANUFACTURE OF CHRONOGRAPHS,WHICH WERE INCREASINGLY IN

DEMAND FOR ATHLETIC, MILITARYAND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS.

BY GISBERT L. BRUNNER

Ernest Schneider tookover the Breitling brand

in 1979 and soon pilotedit to new heights.

Top to bottom: WillyBreitling (1913-1979),who took over Breitlingin 1932 and sold it toErnest Schneider in1979; the company’sfounder, Léon Breitling(1860-1914); Léon’s son and successor GastonBreitling (1884-1927)

HISTORYBreitling

Leon G. Breitling S.A. MontbrillantWatch Manufactory. The factory em-ployed approximately 60 people, plus ad-ditional watchmakers who worked fromtheir homes.

Léon Breitling died on August 11,1914, at the comparatively young age of54, and his son Gaston, who was alsotrained as a watchmaker, inherited thecompany. Gaston Breitling was also welleducated in the commercial aspects of hisfather’s business. He understood the ne-cessity of continuing to develop new, at-tractive products, and believed that thebrand’s main strength was in makingwatches that could measure brief inter-vals of time. Breitling, therefore, decidedto focus more on these types of products,creating dials for a wide variety of practi-cal applications. Some were calibratedwith scales that enabled their users to de-termine average speeds or to measure dis-tances based on the different speeds oflight and sound. Another was the dial onthe patented “Vitesse” stopwatch, whichtraffic policemen could use to clock mo-torists who exceeded the speed limit.When Breitling’s first wristwatch chrono-

graph became available around 1915, itwas very positively received by militarymen. These chronographs were also idealfor use in sporting events, to time racesand other athletic competitions.

As was customary at the time, manyof these dials were left unsigned. A few ofthem were adorned with the word“Montbrillant.” Others bore insigniaslike “Sprint,” “Koko” or “Vitesse.” Thename “Breitling” first appeared on a dialtoward the end of the 1920s.

When Gaston Breitling died unex-pectedly on July 30, 1927, there was noappropriate heir apparent in the family totake over the company, so outside man-agers ran it for the next several years,which included the market crash of 1929and the subsequent Great Depression.Breitling, like practically every otherbusiness, struggled to stay afloat duringthose years of declining demand, but itsexecutives were ultimately able to acquireenough orders to keep it alive until Gas-ton’s only son, Willy Breitling, came gal-loping to the rescue in 1932. Willy, withan education in both the technical andcommercial sides of the watch business,

began steering the family business towardhis own vision of its future.

Breitling’s catalogs from the 1930sdisplayed an interesting spectrum ofchronographs, stopwatches and deckwatches. The collection included morethan 40 different models, and the totalnumber increased steadily. The firm wasamong the trailblazers of two-buttonchronographs, and also distinguished it-self by introducing and popularizing the12-hour counter. Even the Catholicchurch benefited from the inventivenessof the gents on Rue Montbrillant, whogave the name “Unedeu” to a counterwith a three-digit tally. A parish priestcould keep this device discreetly in hispocket and use it to count the penitentsthat entered his confessional.

In 1939, Breitling delivered largenumbers of chronographs to the BritishRoyal Air Force for use aboard aircraft,which would lead to Breitling becomingone of the world’s best-known suppliersof timepieces for airborne applications.Pilots, aircraft manufacturers and airlinesrelied on Breitling’s cleverly designed in-struments.

IN 1941, BREITLING INTRODUCED awristwatch chronograph, the distinctive-ly styled Chronomat. Protected by sever-al patents, the watch contained the Venus175 chronograph caliber, which provideda counter for 45 elapsed minutes and alsosupported a diverse array of calculatingfunctions. However, wearers neededsome practice to become adept at operat-ing the logarithmic scales with the aid ofthe fluted, rotating bezel. Putting two cal-ibrated stretches end to end was equiva-lent to adding their logarithms (i.e., it

Léon Breitling established his

workshop in the left wing of this building in

Saint-Imier.

A wristwatchchronograph from

1915

An early Chronomatwith a counter for 45

elapsed minutes, circa 1942

HISTORYBreitling

multiplied the numbers); subtracting onefrom the other yielded the quotient of thetwo numbers. Once the wearer learned tooperate this miniature mechanical com-puter, he could perform complex calcula-tions in seconds with a flip of the wrist.

A comprehensive catalog, which list-ed some 250 watches for widely diverseuses, was published in 1946. The focuswas naturally on chronographs, and lead-ing the parade was the elaborate Duo-graph, with its split-seconds function forintermediate time-reading. Classic three-handed wristwatches were, of course, al-so available. All of the watches containedcalibers manufactured by the movement-blank giant Ébauches SA because Breit-ling did not manufacture its own watchmovements.

Commercial and private aviation ex-perienced a rapid upswing during the ear-ly 1950s. Boeing, Lockheed, Douglas and25 commercial airlines equipped theirfleets with Breitling’s onboard instru-ments. The era of commercial jet travelbegan when the de Havilland Comet flewfrom London to Johannesburg on May 2,1952. This was the same year in whichBreitling developed the Navitimer, awatch that combined a chronograph witha navigational computer. Equipped witheven more calculating options for pilotsthan the Chronomat, its logarithmicscales for flight-specific calculations gaveit its name, which fuses the words “navi-gation” and “timer.”

Breitling added a version of the Nav-itimer with a 24-hour dial in 1962. InMay of that same year, this distinctive“Cosmonaute” chronograph flew intospace on the wrist of astronaut Scott Car-penter. It easily withstood all the rigors ofouter space and returned to Earth havingperformed with flying colors.

In 1952, the year of the Navitimer,Willy Breitling made a decision thatwould have far-reaching consequencesfor his business, dividing his commercialactivities between two venues. Breitling etMontbrillant, the production site forwatches, remained in the Jura region,while G. Léon Breitling SA, Compagniedes Montres, the firm’s headquarters andsales division, resettled in Geneva, whereit was closer to the markets. This decision

was prompted by faster-paced times, inwhich product innovations were neces-sary for brand recognition and growth.The American market, which Breitlinghad entered in the 1940s, demanded it.Standing still would have meant losingground.

Advertisements in Life magazine trig-gered a steep increase in demand. Themoviemaker 20th Century Fox presentedthe Navitimer in several films, including1967’s Fathom, which featured Bre-itling’s Co-Pilot model on the wrist of ac-tress Raquel Welch, and 1965’s Thunder-ball, in which Sean Connery’s JamesBond consulted his Breitling Top Time, amodel created primarily for a youngerclientele.

DESPITE ALL BREITLING’S efforts,

sales of traditional hand-wound chrono-graphs declined noticeably in the mid-1960s. Breitling and its archrival in theSwiss-made chronograph market, Heuer,were hard pressed to cope with this situa-tion. Their mutual predicament impelledWilly Breitling and Heuer’s Jack W.Heuer to collaborate on a special project:the development of an automatic chrono-graph, a type of watch that had never be-fore been built. Both companies were so-called établisseurs — meaning they pro-duced completed watches but did notmanufacture their own movements — soBreitling and Heuer invited two otherSwiss firms, the ébauche specialist Bürenand the chronograph specialist DuboisDépraz, to join the partnership. TheU.S.A.’s Hamilton Watch Company,which had become the majority share-

BREITLING RANKED AMONGTHE TRAILBLAZERS OF

CHRONOGRAPH WATCHESWITH TWO PUSH-PIECES.

The Duograph from 1944had an ultra-slim

movement despite itssplit-seconds mechanism.

The Navitimer’s dial has scales used by

pilots for navigation.

The Navitimer, launched in 1952,

ranks among Breitlingfans’ favorite models.

holder of Büren, became involved at thebeginning of 1966.

The first prototypes, which per-formed well in tests on the wrist, debutedin the spring of 1968. The winding andchronograph mechanisms of the 31-mil-limeter-wide and 7.7-millimeter-thickCaliber 11, which was known by thenickname “Chrono-Matic,” functionedso well that it was quickly readied for se-rial manufacturing. The haste was neces-sary because of competing developmentsin Switzerland and Japan. The need to or-der dials, cases, push-pieces and windingcrowns from outside suppliers had en-larged the circle of those in the knowabout the top-secret project, so the devel-opers didn’t want to wait for the 1969watch fair in Basel to introduce it to thepublic. On March 3, 1969, journalistswere invited to the Hotel Intercontinentalin Geneva and to the posh Copter Club atthe Pan Am Building in New York for theunveiling of Breitling’s Chrono-Maticwatch. The event was sponsored by theFederation of the Swiss Watch Industry(FH), whose president, Gérard F. Bauer,emphasized in Geneva that, “at a timecharacterized by increasingly severe for-eign competition, this innovative productdemonstrates that the industrialists havethe determination and the ability to re-main competitive, and to do so in themost active, most forceful and most ag-gressive sense of the word. This provesthat three watch companies, without giv-ing up their own personalities, can col-laboratively achieve a technical feat thatnone of them could have accomplishedon its own.”

The project had cost 500,000 Swissfrancs, which was a gigantic sum at thetime. After four years of collaboration,Breitling sent the Chrono-Matic into themarket, where it vied with Heuer’s ownautomatic chronograph. During its firstfour years, Breitling sold an estimated300,000 pieces, initially outfitted withCaliber 11 and later animated by thefaster-oscillating version, Caliber 12. And300,000 units was quite a large numberin those days.

The era of the world’s first and onlymodular chronograph, with automaticwinding by a microrotor, lasted exactly

one decade. It ended much more quietlythan it had begun: in January 1979, ayear that would prove to be a fateful onefor Breitling, the decision was made toterminate production of the caliber.“Electronic” was the new magic word.And here we return to Ernest Schneider,who jumped aboard this bandwagon af-ter the Breitling takeover. For example, in1983, Breitling launched the NavitimerGMT, a quartz chronograph with oneanalog and two digital time zones.

However, when the firm reached its100th anniversary in 1984, Breitling re-turned to its longtime tradition of me-chanical horology, launching a new ver-sion of the Chronomat, revamped to sat-isfy modern tastes. The model was a suc-cess, and provided a base upon whichBreitling could build in the ensuing years.That self-winding watch easily withstoodaccelerations up to 20 Gs, which helped itto become the official instrument of theItalian flying squadron Frecce Tricolori.Breitling followed it up with a divers’watch, with a helium-escape valve andthe ability to descend to 1,000 meters, in

AS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM,ALL OF BREITLING’S MOVEMENTS ARE COSC-CERTIFIED CHRONOMETERS.

BREITLING FOR BENTLEY WAS INTENDED TO UNITE THE DYNAMISMOF THE WATCH BRAND AND THE PRESTIGE OF THE AUTOMOBILE BRAND.

The Chronomat B01launched in 2009.

The Cosmonaut,a Navitimer

with a 24-hourdial, was worn

into space in1962.

An illustration showingthe parts of Caliber 8510

One of the first automatic chronographs:

the Chrono-Matic from 1969

HISTORYBreitling

1986. The Emergency watch, which fol-lowed in 1988, was equipped with abuilt-in emergency transmitter thathelped rescuers to locate the survivors ofa plane crash or shipwreck.

These examples demonstrate that di-versity was the basis of Breitling’s strate-gy after its acquisition by the Schneiderfamily, whose philosophy was to preservethe brand identity without losing sight ofmodern innovation. Breitling also took afirst step toward broadening its watch-making competence in 1997, when ittook over Kelek, one of its important sup-pliers. But even more important was anunprecedented campaign for quality andprecision. This was prompted by com-plaints from agents and specialized deal-ers that the quality and reliability of themovements in Breitling’s watches did notalways meet the brand’s professionalstandards. To rectify that situation, thecompany set up new facilities in LaChaux-de-Fonds at the start of the 21stcentury. The new guiding philosophy wasthat no watch would be allowed to leaveBreitling’s sparklingly clean and light-flooded ateliers without first havingearned an official COSC rate certificate.

Strict quality control applies to allphases of the production. “For example,we use an apparatus that we developedourselves to check each and every main-spring and its barrel,” says CEO Jean-Paul Girardin. “Although we buy noth-ing but the best, 11 or 12 percent of thesprings and barrels fail to uphold ourstandards.” Springs whose characteristiccurves deviate from the acceptable rangeare eliminated. “Before we send ourmovements to COSC for testing and cer-tification as genuine chronometers,they’ve already passed through 10 differ-ent control phases.” The percentage ofthese movements that don’t make thegrade at COSC is small. To prevent un-welcome surprises after the movementshave been cased, Breitling subjects thecompleted watches to similarly meticu-lous testing.

BREITLING’S SUCCESSFUL coopera-tion with the British luxury automakerBentley had essentially already begun in1998, when Volkswagen bought Bentley

Motors Ltd., founded in 1919. Thetakeover gave Bentley’s designers consid-erably more freedom than would havebeen possible under the brand’s previousowner, Rolls-Royce. And thus the pathscrossed for two traditional businessesthat, by coincidence or fate, each used awinged “B” as its trademark.

The dialog acquired concrete form in2002. “Bentley needed financial supportfor a comeback at the legendary 24Hours of Le Mans, which the brand hadwon a total of five times — in 1924 andfrom 1927 to 1930,” Girardin explains.After several rounds of negotiations, acontract with a term of several years wassigned in 2002. “Only on this basis doesit make sense to invest in an independentline of watches,” Girardin adds. “NeitherBreitling nor Bentley wanted merely tomarket a classical Breitling wristwatchwith the ‘Bentley’ name added to its dial.Breitling for Bentley would have to bevery special in order to unite the dy-namism of the watches and the prestigeof the automobile brand.”

The effort was apparent when Bent-ley presented the Continental GT thatsame year. The instruments aboard thisvehicle showed Breitling’s unmistakablehandwriting, and the brand’s insigniaadorned the clock on its dashboard. Thefollowing year, Breitling served as spon-sor of the more-than-600-horsepower-strong Bentley racecars, which sped to adouble victory at Le Mans. This mile-stone inspired a limited-edition chrono-graph with a 24-hour dial, called theBentley Le Mans.

“Suddenly our Breitling for Bentleywatches appeared in articles written byautomobile journalists where we, as anoriginal brand, had almost never beforebeen represented,” Girardin says. As faras distribution was concerned, Breitlingcontinued to rely on its partnerships withwatch and jewelry stores.

BREITLING’S 125TH ANNIVERSARYyear in 2009 coincided with the launchof Breitling’s first manufacture move-ment, Caliber B01. The movement pow-

ers a new version of the Chronomat, the43.5-millimeter Chronomat B01, whichis available in stainless steel, bicolor androse gold with various dials. Its bezel ro-tates in only one direction and is en-graved with wide minute digits to meas-ure flight and dive times. Thanks to itsscrewed crown, screwed push-pieces,domed sapphire crystal and massive steelback, the stainless-steel case can resist upto 500 meters of pressure, meaning thatit can be worn for diving. Price-consciouswatch fans will be pleased to know thatthe Chronomat B01 is not prohibitivelyexpensive despite having a manufacturemovement. The price range begins at$7,075 for the stainless-steel versionwith calfskin strap.

Connoisseurs will appreciate thishigh-quality automatic chronograph,with its column-wheel control and fric-tion coupling, both of which are manu-factured according to ultramodern stan-dards. And of course, each and everymovement is officially COSC-certified asa chronometer.

Breitling produced aNavitimer with an LCDdisplay in 1977.

Caliber B01 is fitted with a column wheel.

The improved Emergencyfrom 1995, with built-in

miniature transmitter

This Chronomat model, released in 1984, isone of the brand’s best-selling items.

The Breitling for BentleyGMT Chronograph, introduced in 2008