Breitling’s new Breitling Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown celebrates the brand’s partnership with Outerknown, the sustainable clothing company co-founded by 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater (a personal hero of mine). Initially, when Outerknown was founded in 2014, it began by making surf shorts and bomber jackets with ECONYL yarn, a material created from nylon waste, one source of which is fishing nets from oceans around the world. This yarn has now been used to develop the brand’s first NATO-style strap, further advancing its mission of improving our environment through responsibly-made products.
Introduced in 1957, the Superocean was designed to be used by recreational and professional divers alike. Over the years we have seen a multitude of variations of the models, but today we see the first Superocean that does more than just help divers measure time underwater – it also helps support the massive clean effort required to rid our oceans of the thousands of tons of discarded fishing nets.
I am all for projects that do good, particularly those with a focus on nature conservation. When I heard the partnership was with Outerknown and Slater though, I was really stoked. The watch itself is 44mm, in a black DLC-coated stainless steel case with the Outerknown logo engraved on the caseback.
The COSC-certified chronometer features an ultra-hard scratch and shock-resistant unidirectional ceramic bezel with a luminescent central dot at the 12 o’clock position. The Breitling Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown is powered by the Breitling Caliber 13 mechanical chronograph movement, which is based on a Valjoux 7750 and has the familiar three-register layout with day and date at three o’clock. The blue dial is great, with a really rich tonality that is further complemented by the all-important strap.
“We are happy to have this chance to strengthen our collaboration with Kelly Slater, who is a member of our Surfers Squad and co-founder of Outerknown,” said Breitling CEO Georges Kern at an event in London last week. “By introducing the ECONYL yarn strap, we are taking another important step in our commitment to sustainability. We are looking forward to introducing other great watches equipped with these straps in the future.” I applaud Breitling Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 for looking at ways at integrating sustainability to their products while still making sure the products themselves are of high quality and good design.