Breitling- Intruments for Professionals
About Breitling:
Breitling has been producing luxury timepieces since 1884.
Started by Leon Breitling at the age of 24, the manufacturer has blazed trails in the world of luxury sports watches. While most of Mr. Breitling’s family went to America to make a new life in the new world, Leon stayed and started a small watch making shop and boutique. From there, he started to create his own line of timepieces. Breitling was one of the first to produce chronographs which were in high demand due to their ability to easily measure short times. Watch collectors around the world were amazed by the marvels that Leon was turning out. In 1892, Leon moved from St. Imier to La Chaux-de-Fonds, a growing town which was closer to the suppliers where Breitling obtained their materials. This new factory in the Rue Montbrilliant side of town employed over 60 people.
After the passing of Leon, his son, Gaston, took the reins. The brand pushed the envelope and watch buyers around the world were placing orders for the Breitling pieces. They began to produce wristwatch chronographs which were more convenient to use than pocket watches. Gaston also began to put tachymetre scales on the dials allowing drivers to measure speed over a 1 mile distance. Everyone, from the military to race car drivers, used Breitling watches. Even law enforcement wore Breitling watches because it allowed them to catch drivers breaking the speed limit.
In 1936, Breitling began its relationship with aviation by making clocks and instruments for inside the cockpit. During the 1950’s boom of commercial flying Breitling introduced the Navitmer, a watch with not only a chronograph but a circular slide rule allowing mathematical complications to be performed on the dial. This led to the Breitling Navitmer being the number 1 watch for pilots world-wide to this day. Breitling also received the honor of the first chronograph in space when Scott Carpenter took along the Cosmonaute on his space flight in 1962 on the Aurora 7 mission.
In cooperation with Huer and other brands, Breitling introduced the first self-winding chronograph which allowed for users to not have to worry about regularly winding their timepiece. In 1979 Ernest Schneider purchased the Manufacture from Willy Breitling, who was the last Breitling family member to own the firm.
Schneider, a pilot and microelectronic enthusiast, used his skills to take advantage of the quartz or battery powered watch craze and began to recreate the Breitling brand. He began to make pieces with digital and analog displays which also had multiple functions. Pilots fell in love with the new Aerospace, one of these new pieces with an ultra light, titanium case.
Breitling turned its attention back to mechanical timepieces when it came out with the Chronomat, a watch designed in partnership with the elite jet team, Freece Tricolori. With its robust case and bracelet the piece shocked the world as being one of the few watches in existence that could handle over 20 Gs of force.
Breitling then turned to the sea as it made its first diving watch, able to handle depths of 1,000 meters with a helium escapement valve to prevent the build-up of various gases within the watch.
In 1988 Breitling once again showed the world why their watches are considered the instruments for professionals when it replaced the Emergency 1. The Emergency was based upon the Aerospace design but had a built in S.O.S transmitter in the head of the watch. This allowed survivors of a plane crash (or other disasters) to send out a beacon on a special aviation emergency channel, directing rescuers to their location.
Breitling set it eyes on being at the top of the luxury sports watch world and decided to have every single piece produced by them “chronometer certified”. This meant that these pieces would be tested by an independent facility to ensure the standards were upheld to the most rigorous Swiss timing standards. To this day, Breitling is the only brand that does this for its entire production.
Breitling took to the roads once again with its partnership with the British luxury car maker, Bentley. Designers from Breitling worked together with Bentley to produce not only watches with the Breitling Bentley name on them, but to create timepieces that housed the essence of both brands. Breitling also sponsored Bentley in the 2003 LeMans 24 hour race in which they had their first win in 73 years since their last win at the event.
Breitling continues to be one of their top brands in the world of luxury sports watches to this day.