As I think is well known to regulars, I like a Breitling. Wonderful company, fabulous history, and a genuine and deep link to aviation.
I just love the way they do things in terms of design, function and robustness. Few watch companies make pieces as solid, capable, handsome and batterable as a Breitling, and unique styling cues mean you know a watch is one of theirs from 100 yards away.
So all good.
Well not always, because Breitlings tend to be big. 44mm is their average, and they’re not shy about bigger. This is authentic for a flight watch, but with height added to width they can be quite the thing for everyday wear.
I’ve got reasonably sized wrists and can just about carry them off (I have a 45mm Seawolf I adore) but only at weekends. They’re not going to work day to day and are generally far too big and aggressive to wear anywhere formal or business-related.
But back in 2014, and only in 2014, Breitling made what might be their greatest ever tool/pilot’s watch, a 41mm masterpiece which came and went in the blink of an eye. Sadly almost nobody noticed, and by the end of the year they launched it they’d stopped making it (I’ll explain why in a moment).
What was this thing?
It was the Chronomat 41 “Airborne” special edition. There aren’t many of them, and the market still hasn’t caught up with them 12 years later. That means they’re treasure, and affordable treasure too, if you can find one.
Before we delve into the detail, let’s start by acknowledging that no watch company can claim greater aviation heritage than Breitling. That’s not just about being involved in the early years of flight, air racing and development (they were, at every turn) or making aeronautical instruments for decades.
Want an example? Okay. During WW2 the man running the company, the founder’s grandson Willy Breitling, used to smuggle Breitling pilot’s watches and cockpit aviation gauges to the allies on RAF Lysanders which landed in fields and meadows illuminated by the headlights of Willy and his friends’ cars acting as “runway lights”. On his way home Willy would find a bar and deliberately behave terribly – singing, buying endless rounds of drinks and making sure everyone saw and remembered him. This was to establish an alibi for the Gestapo, who had agents everywhere in neutral Switzerland.
There’s “authentic”, and then there’s authentic eh?
Post-war, Breitling supplied watches to numerous air forces, and especially elite units (and still does). That was marketing, and fair play to them, although in many cases the watches are designed alongside the people who’ll wear them in the air, so they tend to be excellent at the job in hand. One such unit was the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian version of the UK Red Arrows, or the US Blue Angels. Breitling supplied its range-topping Chronomat to the Italian Air Force display team.
That collaboration began in 1984. To mark its 30th anniversary in 2014 Breitling produced a very special edition of the Chronomat, designed alongside the Italian pilots.
It was intended to look like it came from 1984, but was as robust and capable as you’d expect one of Breitling’s flagship watches to be in 2014.
At 41mm it was small, or at least small for a Breitling pilot’s watch (the same size as modern Submariner, if you want a comparison), although at 15mm+ high it still wears like a Breitling – i.e. like it’s been hewn from granite.
The case was highly polished, as is common with Breitlings; but in this smaller size that just works, unlike on some 45mm and larger Breitlings when the polishing can make the watch overpowering. It was also muted by a satin unidirectional bezel and matt black dial. Throw in flashes of red in the handset and the mix of polish, satin, matt black and red, plus those gorgeous sub-dials with their circular grain, came together to make a beautiful if purposeful chrono. It’s a belter.
The subtle date at 0430 is even asymmetrical and thus really works well, allowing the eye to note it but then just roll off it rather than lingering and breaking up the stunning dial.
Inside was Breitling’s in-house B01 chronograph movement. No less than 47 jewels, both a vertical clutch and a column wheel, 70 hour power reserve and of course COSC certification. That was insulated with so much water resistance you could use it as a dive watch, great anti-magnetic resistance and of course a shock core to protect everything.
The lume was aged, but not just by being painted on in that faded yellow colour of cheap aged lume elsewhere. This was deeply applied but was also designed to look a little cracked and elderly, like it had been in the air since 1984. And yet it shines like an arc-light at night. It’s gorgeous.
And finally, because it was a watch designed to celebrate a 30th anniversary, it went straight out of production at the end of 2014 and never came back, because authentic again right?
They came on a bracelet or a Breitling fabric strap with branded buckle and the caseback was unique, laying out the watch’s purpose and heritage along with an image of the Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN jet trainer the Frecce Tricolori flies.
These things are, in my view, amongst the greatest sleepers in tool watches. All the solidity, performance and heritage of a modern Breitling aviation watch, but in a retro package you can wear every day, anywhere (including, as it happens, in the cockpit of a fighter jet).
Prices are climbing as folk, finally, wake up to this piece, but you can still buy a mint example in the UK for £3500-£4000 which is frankly ridiculous for what you get, what it’ll do, how it looks, and the history behind it.
I hope this has given you a new thing to hunt for, and take it from me you’ll be delighted if you catch one. Don’t say I never do anything for you…
The Little Machines 