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Mention the Breitling Navitimer, and it's not only lovers of precise Swiss luxury watches whose eyes light up. For many active and retired pilots and other aviation enthusiasts, the name of this watch has a very special ring to it. In this article, we profile a watch that ranks among the best-known horological icons of the 20th century and has since lent its name to an entire collection of top-tier pilot's chronographs. Get to know the most common Breitling Navitimer models and their differences.
An Irresistible Fascination for 65 Years
Breitling's Navitimer has now been on the market for around 65 years. Even so, this collection of pilot's watches with the distinctive slide rule scale remains one of the key assets in Breitling's lineup and is currently offered in no fewer than eight different model versions. In the age of tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches, a mechanical pilot's watch packed with additional functions may seem almost like an anachronism, yet it gives its wearer the reassuring feeling of being able to take precise time measurements and handle important calculations in no time at all, without any power source, chips, or processors.
The Story Behind the First Models: From the Chronomat to the Navitimer
When the pilot's watch was first presented to the public in 1952, it was by no means a fresh start from scratch for its maker. Rather, it was the systematic further development of a pilot's watch produced earlier, which had become a major success for Breitling and is still part of the manufacture's lineup today. That watch is the Chronomat, launched in 1942 and officially adopted as a pilot's watch by the US Army Air Force. It was no coincidence that the choice fell on Breitling models of all things. Since the early 1930s, the company, which had already distinguished itself in the development of pocket and wrist chronographs, had opened up another important market segment by producing onboard chronographs for aircraft cockpits.
Britain's Royal Air Force had been sourcing the cockpit clocks for its military aircraft from Breitling since 1936, making it a prominent reference. The Chronomat was designed explicitly as a pilot's watch for practical use in military as well as civil aviation. It was a hand-wound mechanical chronograph with a slide rule function. The latter allowed pilots and navigators to perform important calculations quickly and easily, without having to rely on any tools other than the wristwatch they were already wearing.
As the various Navitimer models evolved, the slide rule function became even more sophisticated. The calculations it made possible included average speeds, fuel consumption, and rates of climb and descent. In addition, special scales let you read off conversions between units such as statute miles, nautical miles, and kilometers at a glance.
Models Recommended by AOPA as a Pilot's Watch – and Continuously Refined
The Navitimer name alludes to the fact that this watch had been tailored specifically to the needs of navigation. Because Breitling's new pilot's watch met practical requirements so well, it was officially recommended as a pilot's watch by the world's largest pilots' association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), in the very year of its launch. Early examples bearing the AOPA logo on the dial are now sought-after collector's items.
Over the following decades, the pilot's watch models were continuously refined and joined by sister models, resulting in a complete model line. A fundamental innovation came in 1969 with the introduction of the Chrono-Matic caliber, in which the pilot's watch's manual winding was replaced by automatic winding for the first time.
That same year, Breitling's watchmakers and engineers also solved a problem concerning the slide rule: until then, using it had always caused the entire upper case of the watch, including bezel and crystal, to rotate along with it.
Installing a transmission mechanism made it possible to avoid this, which significantly improved the watch's water resistance. With the widespread adoption of quartz technology in the 1970s, Navitimer models with LCD and LED displays also came onto the market. When Willy Breitling sold his company in the late 1970s, he found in Ernest Schneider a buyer who was a near-perfect fit for the Breitling brand. Schneider had not only worked in the watch industry for many years but was also a passionate sport pilot who had spent many an hour in the cockpit over more than 20 years. For the survival of the manufacture and its market position as a pilot's watch specialist, this was certainly a stroke of good fortune.
A New Era Begins – Models and Differences
Although Breitling struggled with the effects of the quartz crisis well into the 1990s, under Schneider's leadership the company focused from the outset on developing new model versions for its famous pilot's watch collections. This paid off a few years later, when demand for mechanical luxury watches rose markedly again. The Breitling Navitimer has since been improved and modernized several times. It was first fitted with the Valjoux 7750 caliber, which was reworked in numerous details for this purpose.
Over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, several Heritage editions were launched that hark back to historic models in the collection. A very special milestone in the company's history was the introduction of the Breitling Navitimer 1 caliber in 2009. This was the brand's first in-house movement, with which it definitively joined the ranks of genuine Swiss watch manufactures, having previously always relied on movements from other makers.
A Look at the 1 and the Models in the Current Collection
The Navitimer 1 Automatic 41 is today the "face" of the collection, and its design still stays very close to the 1952 original. In its classic standard version, it features a stainless steel case, a black dial with a white flange and white subdials, a date window between 4 and 5 o'clock, and a red seconds hand. The distinctive look of the 1 is further defined by the notched edge of the bidirectional rotating bezel, which makes it easier to operate the aviation slide rule. The self-winding Breitling 17 movement offers a power reserve of 38 hours.
Alternatively, the pilot's watch is available as a chronograph. The differences between the Navitimer 1 Chronograph 41 and Navitimer 1 Chronograph 46 models go beyond size; more on the GMT function follows below.
Models with the In-House B01 Caliber and Their Differences
Since 2009, the Navitimer has been available in various chronograph models with the in-house B01 movement. A transparent caseback on these models reveals the chronometer-certified masterpiece of a caliber. A power reserve of a good 70 hours is a clear added benefit. The dial is now available in many colors. Case sizes vary across the different versions between 41, 43, and 46 millimeters. Finally, the Navitimer 1 B03 Chronograph Rattrapante 45 offers something special: its two superimposed chronograph hands make it possible to time two events simultaneously.
Breitling GMT Models for Travelers and Business People
A second time zone display is a useful additional function on a pilot's watch, especially if its wearer frequently flies long-haul across different time zones. But people who travel a lot for business or pleasure, or who often communicate with business partners overseas, also appreciate a pilot's watch with a GMT function. Models with a GMT complication give wearers the added benefit of displaying the time in two time zones. The differences from regular automatic models are obvious at first glance. Most prominently, the Navitimer 1 Chronograph GMT 46 features an additional central hand for this purpose.
For easier distinction, this hand has a striking red tip and indicates the second time zone on a circular 24-hour scale inserted between the minute track and the slide rule. Apart from these details, the design of the GMT is practically identical to that of the NT 01.
