What makes a Breitling a Breitling???

[martynjc]

These are my personal ramblings of the Breitling brand after owning 4 of them and trying on a few others:

Characteristics:

1. Tool watches - typically utilitarian in nature, which look 'chunky' with big bezels and look solid. Breitling tend to produce watches for active lifestyles - or perhaps those who *wish* to portray they lead an active lifestyle

2. Often with complex dials - usually many sub-dials and scales on watch face - check out the Navitimer range, for example.

3. Innovative - for example the sound chamber of the B-1 on the case back is in the form of turbine blades. Apparently Breitling invented the Chronograph (please correct me if I'm wrong here as I'm quoting from memory). The SuperQuartz movement was developed by ETA for/with Breitling which is a thermocompensated movement fitted to all their latest quartz models accurate to much better than +-15sec/year

3. Evolutionary - tends to produce new styles and quash existing lines quite quickly. For example the successful Winrider line has virtually disappeared. The 'Bentley' range is an example of a new line of larger watches picking up designs from other lines (for example dual date window display and day/date display)

3. Wide range - Breitling produce watches designed for many types of activity:
- deep-sea divers / water eg the M-1 (with innovative magnetic pushers) for 1000m,
- Aviators/Aeronautics - Navitimer range, the ultimate 'tool' watch, or the B-1 or slimline version the tt Aerospace.
- Space - Navitimer was first watch in Space

I could go on, but essentially when I see someone wearing a Breitling, I see an individual, who is willing to break from the crowd

These are my personal opinions and I would welcome feedback and any comments (and no, I have no affiliation to the brand!!!)

[BruceS]

I think we posted at the same time, lol! I agree with you, although I do think some people buy big 'ol Breitlings because they stand out. Some of them have quite the bling factor, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm starting to find that I kinda like a little bling ;D

Breitlings are tool watches. Having dived with both the Super Ocean and the Seamaster Pro, I much prefer the Breitling as a dive tool. Like you said, the Navitimer may be the ultimate tool watch. Breitling certainly did develop the aviation chronograph. I'm not sure about inventing the chronograph. I'm pretty sure Breguet has been making them for a long time.

I'm not sure of the real statistics, but Breitling sales seem to be up. The large AD I use says Breitling is number 2 behind Rolex. The Omega display has shrunk terribly to about the size of the Baume display! I've read similar reports in other areas of the US and Canada.

I always take notice when I see someone wearing a Breitling. In my area, I mostly notice Rolex on people who aren't wearing the standard Seiko. I saw a guy in the Bahamas last week wearing not only the watch, but also a Breitling cap!

P.S. Just did a search on who invented the chronograph and found a few interesting articles. Here's an excerpt from one of them:

"It would take until 1969 before the first self winding chronograph appears on the market. In that year, two automatic chronographs were introduced on the Basel Watch Fair: the Chronomat and the El Primero. The firms Zenith and Movado called their product "El Primero" (The First), because it was the first in it's kind. Their competitors Breitling, Hamilton-Büren and Heuer-Leonidas -which, one by one, thought that the honours of being the first was theirs- gave their new-comer the name "Chrono-matic", a joining of "chronograph" and "automatic". "

You can find the entire article at www.xs4all.nl/~rkeulen/watch/chronos.html

So...it would appear that Breitling was right in there with the first automatic chronograph, which is a distinction from having invented the chronograph!

[MikeS]

lets see some pictures!