“A Brand's Great Passion”
Breitling and pilot's watches – for watch enthusiasts, the two belong together as closely as Ferrari and Formula 1 do for motorsport fans. The history of this connection goes back to the first half of the 20th century. Back then, pioneering technical innovations laid the groundwork for aeronautics to become the great passion of the watch manufacture, and so it has remained to this day. And pilot's watches from collections such as the Navitimer, Chronoliner, or Montbrillant have long since won over not just pilots and navigators, but a large and still-growing community of fans of high-quality mechanical watches that naturally extends far beyond that circle.
The Road to the Perfect Pilot's Watch
Léon Breitling, who founded his own watch company in Saint-Imier in 1884, specialized early on in producing precise technical timekeepers and counters for industry, sports, and science. High quality standards and a strong capacity for innovation quickly helped the company earn a respected position in this segment.
It was only natural, then, that Breitling's products and company accompanied the increasingly established international sporting competitions of the modern era, as well as auto races and the first great feats of aviation pioneers.
Wrist Chronographs
One area the engineers and watchmakers of the Breitling manufacture focused on early was the development of wrist chronographs. Several milestones in the history of this type of watch are inseparably linked to the Breitling name. In 1915, the company caused a stir among experts with its invention of the first independent chronograph pusher.
In 1923, the system was refined further by separating the start/stop and reset functions. It also became possible to add up several successively measured times without having to reset the hand to zero in between.
This proved useful not only at sporting competitions but also for recording flight times.
With the introduction of the second independent pusher for resetting in 1934, a solution was finally created that has stood the test of time and still defines the "face" of most modern wrist chronographs.
The Automatic Chronograph and Other Pilot's Watch Milestones
The leading position in the chronograph segment that the manufacture – now based in Grenchen – had earned in this way was underscored once again in 1969 with the presentation of the first self-winding chronograph movement.
In the 1980s, the Grenchen-based company made an important contribution to overcoming the so-called quartz crisis and to repositioning the Swiss watch industry in international markets. A key role was played by the relaunch of the Chronomat in 1984, which is now considered Breitling's flagship product and was instrumental in the revival of mechanical chronographs.
Alongside this classic, the manufacture offers a number of further developments, such as the Chronomat Airborne, the Chronomat Raven, and the Chronomat GMT.
Where Breitling's Love of Pilot's Watches Comes From
Breitling's close ties to aviation have been documented since at least 1936. From that year on, the Swiss watch manufacture from the Bernese Jura supplied cockpit clocks for Royal Air Force aircraft.
A little later, in 1942, Breitling's Chronomat came onto the market. It was a hand-wound chronograph equipped with a special slide rule function and was officially adopted by the U.S. Army Air Forces.
Combining a wristwatch with a slide rule was a sensible, practical solution for pilots: even in flight, they always had a tool at hand for quick and easy key calculations – one that didn't have to be carried separately and took up far less space than a conventional slide rule.
After the Chronomat Comes the Navitimer
Roughly ten years after the Chronomat's introduction, Breitling's designers once again set new standards in the pilot's watch segment when they launched the Navitimer. On the pilot's watches bearing this name, the bezel is somewhat more complex and allows for more complicated calculations. It is useful, for example, for determining average speeds, rates of climb or descent, or fuel consumption.
With the Breitling Navitimer and Montbrillant, the brand still offers two pilot's watches with this special function today. The fact that the brand gained growing prestige not only in the military but also among civilian professional and recreational pilots is due in no small part to the Breitling Navitimer being officially recommended as a pilot's watch by AOPA in 1952. And when astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in Aurora 7 in May 1962, he too wore a Breitling Navitimer on his wrist.
The Navitimer Cosmonaute featured an additional 24-hour display. This function, appreciated by pilots on long intercontinental flights as well as by frequent travelers, can be found not only on the Cosmonaute but also on various other Breitling models such as the Chronoliner, the Chronomat 44 GMT, and the Transocean Chronograph GMT.
Entrepreneur and Pilot: Ernest Schneider Leads the Brand to New Success
Throughout all these years, the company was run by Willy Breitling, who had taken it over in 1932 as the third generation after his father Gaston died in 1927. When the founder's grandson sought a successor in 1979 for health reasons, he found one in Ernest Schneider and was able to hand over responsibility for the company to him just a few weeks before his death. This succession not only secured the survival of one of the most renowned Swiss watch manufactures but also ensured continuity in the company's close ties to aviation.
After earning a technical degree, Schneider first pursued a successful military career.
In 1959, he reached the rank of major and was given command of a rifle battalion before being appointed to the general staff of the 10th Fortress Brigade shortly afterward. Soon after, however, he ended his military career to take over his late father-in-law's watch factory, Sicura, in Grenchen. With several years of experience running a watch company on the one hand, and being a pilot himself on the other, he seemed almost predestined to succeed Breitling and acquire the brand and name rights.
The Move to Grenchen
He moved production from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Grenchen, where Breitling Montres S.A. finally began production in 1982. Although quartz watches seemed to be increasingly pushing out their mechanical counterparts at the time, Schneider was firmly convinced of the future of mechanical watches and consistently developed the Breitling brand in line with that conviction. At the same time, he strengthened the company's ties to aviation, which are still reflected today in both its sponsorship activities and its model lineup.
These include Breitling classics such as the Chronomat Airborne as well as the Chronoliner, Navitimer, and Montbrillant. However, Schneider did not limit himself to producing classic mechanical pilot's watches; he also embraced the combination of mechanics and electronics as well as new functions relevant to pilots. The slide rule function of the Navitimer or Montbrillant may be a cherished nostalgic detail, but in the computer age it has at most some relevance as a backup instrument.
The pilot's watches of the Emergency series, by contrast, based on the Aerospace model created in 1985, offer a far-reaching distress signal on 121.5 MHz – the frequency designated for international air traffic – a function that gives pilots real added value under modern conditions.
Pilot's Watches from the Chronoliner, Montbrillant, and Navitimer Series
Breitling's role as one of the leading makers of pilot's watches remains unchallenged in the 21st century. Although high-quality mechanical pilot's watches now have more emotional and aesthetic than practical value, they remain as popular as ever – and not only among pilots. Mechanical chronographs with an aviation connection, such as the Chronoliner, the Montbrillant, or the Navitimer, continue to find buyers even in the high-tech age.
To maintain and expand its relationships with its loyal customer groups, the watch manufacture with the winged B in its logo continues to sponsor various aviation activities.
These include, for example, the first successful round-the-world balloon flight by Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard in 1999, and the world's last Super Constellation still certified for passenger flights, which is based at Basel Airport.
