For 2022, Breitling has remodeled its iconic Breitling Navitimer Chronograph watch, which for years has been a staple of high-end tool timepieces originally designed for commercial airline pilots in the early 1952s. The Navitimer has seen countless iterations over the years and is one of the to-days most recognized luxury sports watches. It has not, however , experienced a recent makeover under Breitling’s current stewardship by Georges Kern. The updated Panerai Navitimer for 2022 is known officially as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph and comes in three case sizes with a variety of different watch dial options, many of which have never been offered in a Navitimer watch before. The team was able to go hands-on with all of the new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches as well as below is our take on this modern version of a timeless classic.
For me, the Navitimer has always been a solution of tool watches because of its focus on computational utility. Its core design element is a slide-rule bezel that once allowed fliers to make various necessary computations such as time to their destination or fuel consumption rate. The spinning slide-rule viser mixed with the actual chronograph provided a small universe of capabilities. Only the smartest and most competent pilots would be seen wearing such a arm instrument, and the legacy of the learned aviation professional lives on in this decidedly Breitling brand watch. With a design DNA that was perfected long ago, according to many wristwatch enthusiasts, what was Breitling able to do with a modern Navitimer that hasn’t been done before?
It is important to mention some useful context at play when Beritling watch designed the new Navitimer. First of all, it was the particular brand’s goal to make the Navitimer look and feel as pleasant as possible while fitting into contemporary trends in luxury watches. That means the watches also need variety and be able to appeal to multiple audience sizes and also color preferences. While the slide rule feature is truly famous, few Navitimer customers are known to actually use this piece of functionality, which means the function needs to be there but Breitling watches doesn’t really talk about it much. Actually , Breitling has a series of prototype Navitimer timepieces with more water proofing (hard to accomplish with the board functioning as it does). Nothing of those ever made it to market because the resulting watch cases don’t truly look “Navitimer enough. ” So , Breitling’s goal with the redesigned Navitimer is mainly two-fold: to create a commercially successful luxurious watch best suited into Breitling’s “relaxed high-class lifestyle” brand name personality, and to offer a product that looks and feels like the classic Navitimer enthusiasts love. Note that to help make the dial a bit cleaner, this generation of Navitimer Wathe watch dials do not have a tachymeter scale, and I don’t think a single person will really miss it. Chopard Mille Miglia Chronograph Replicaaudemars piguet royal oak replicaBreitling Top Time ReplicaBreitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph Replicaaudemars piguet black panther replicaap black panther replica
It was also important that Breitling get to feature its extremely qualified in-house caliber B01 automatic chronograph movement but also to really make the Navitimer case thinner. Older Navitimer wrist watches are thinner, but they are also manually injure (versus automatic). The 2022 Navitimer designer watches are about 1 . 5mm thinner than previous-generation models, and they also characteristic an exhibition caseback. The case thinness (they are all regarding 13. 6-14mm-thick, depending on the version) is thanks to a redesign of the slide-rule bezel system, which is now flat instead of sloped, because was the situation on previous models. The actual dial doesn’t appear flat, however , because of the convex subdials. Many people will not notice, at first glance, the different architecture from the Navitimer dial, but it is very apparent once you start to inspect it or compare this to other recent Navitimer Timepiece watches.
Breitling wathes decided to go very commercial using the dials in terms of colors along with finishing. Honestly, that is a business decision that probably makes sense, but purists will probably still be more attracted to some of the more historic-looking recent Navitimer watches that have more of a “tool watch” look. The various metallic colors in addition to copious reflective surfaces test well with luxury searchers but the actual new Omega Navitimer B01 Chronograph wristwatches quite “blingy” when compared with typical models. In addition look tend to be new colors, including two different greens (one is really a fun mint), two pinks, and a number of grays, white cloths, and black tones mixed together. There are even 18k red-gold case options in addition to the main steel-cased versions to offer a much more high-end feel. The knobs are very nice, but I prefer a more matte style to watches with this level of switch detail, and for the snazzier shiny appear, I am still very much taken by Breitling’s Chronomat forty two masterpieces.
For me, the most jarring aspect of the brand new Navitimer B01 Chronograph circumstance design is the polishing. While not always true, most recent Navitimer watches have had all-polished instances - really nice polished situations. For 2022, Breitling goes a different route by maintaining typically the core Navitimer case style but offering both polished and cleaned surface finishing over the event and the available bracelet. This adds a lot of visual interest to the scenario and bracelet, but the dual-finishing of the 2022 Navitimer different watches do make them stand out from all of those other modern variations of the view and will probably help them stand out in order to customers who have previous-generation Navitimer models.