Breitling Announces the Ultimate Navitimer Watch
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There's few things the luxury watch world enjoys more than celebrating a birthday.
Any date in the diary will do, no matter how quietly the occasion may have shook the world.
Forty-five years since the development of a particular movement. Sixty years of a partnership with some fictional character or other. Seventy-five years since someone climbed a mountain or dived an ocean or completed in some road race latterly associated with the brand.
Last year, Breitling, the Swiss watchmaker known for its precision chronographs, sturdy craftsmanship and strong ties to aviation, had legitimate reason to get out the bunting – the occasion of the 140th anniversary of its founding.
Yet you'd be forgiven for missing it.
Where other brands would have taken the opportunity to create a year's worth of noisy "moments", Breitling's celebrations were curiously muted.
Perhaps to underline a new emphasis on its serious watchmaking credibility – the wider company has announced it will bring back dormant watch geek brand Universal Genève in 2026; more recent rumours suggest the purchase of a third brand, Gallet – Breitling chose to celebrate the milestone by announcing a new movement.
The calibre B19 was the brand’s first perpetual calendar, the complication that tracks day, date, month and moonphase, and self-corrects for leap years, as well as months of 28, 30, and 31 days.
This was the latest in a line of movements Breitling has been developing in-house, a series that began in 2009 with the calibre B01, an automatic chronograph, and has since been followed by a GMT, a split-seconds, and others.
Perpetual calendars are among the most prized complications in any watchmakers’ catalogue – typically the preserve of high-end haute horology brands, and with prices to match.
Breitling chose to double-down on this idea for its anniversary by releasing birthday perpetual calendars across three of its watch models, the Premier, the Navitimer and the Chronomat, and positioning them at the top end of its catalogue.
Each one was a limited edition (of 140, natch), made from 18ct gold and cost an eye-watering £48,000.
That surely ruled out most passing Breitling fans.
Still, movements cost a lot of time and money to produce – Brietling says the B19 underwent a 16-year aging simulation that included 100,000 crown winds, 3,456,000 weight turns and 60,000 shocks at 500G, “among other extreme challenges” – and no one is going to go through all that faff for just three watches.
A broader roll out of the B19 was surely on the cards.
So, today the watchmaker has announced the arrival of the perpetual calendar movement in a more attainable stainless steel version of its flagship watch, the Navitimer.
It also comes in one of the most attractive dial colours, ice blue.
The rest of the specs for the Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar are: a 43mm case, a 96-hour power reserve, Super-Luminova luminescence on the indexes and the hour and minute hand, and water resistance to 30 meters.
The watch comes on either a stainless steel seven-row bracelet, or a black alligator leather strap.
As per the trio of gold models, it also comes COSC-certified, meaning it has been tested and certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, a mark of accuracy and quality that ensures it will keep within a daily rate of -4 to +6 seconds.
For Navitimer fans, of which there are many, the perpetual calendar, with its ability to track days and months virtually uninterrupted, may represent the ultimate expression of timekeeping.
Most compelling may be the price – a little over £25,000, for the leather strap version.
It's hardly pocket money prices. But it's not mad for a perpetual calendar, either.
And it's one announcement following on from last year’s 140th anniversary that Breitling fans may feel like celebrating.
Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar, on a stainless steel bracelet, £25,400.00. Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar, on a black leather Strap, £25,150.00.
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