Tag: Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41

Pilot’s watches are as popular as they are, not because there are a tremendous number of pilots in the general population, but simply because there are a lot of us in love with the idea of flying. And not flying in the way most of us fly nowadays. I’ve probably logged more miles in the air than Charles Lindbergh, but it’s been a completely passive experience. Air travel today is deliberately engineered either to make you wish you were almost anywhere else (in economy) or to distract you as much as possible (in business class) from the reality of being shot through the air in an aluminum tube, miles above the Earth, with several hundred strangers who are hoping as hard as you are that the crew up front knows what they’re doing, and that the aircraft can be relied on to not shed a wing in mid-flight. (I have an especially vivid memory of a flight to Las Vegas a few years ago and a patch of very nasty clear air turbulence over the Rocky Mountains; the plane shook as if Thor were applying his hammer to the fuselage and an elderly woman in the row ahead of me finally said, plaintively, “I hope this plane is made good!”) No, the kind of flying we’d like to do is the kind where we’re in the driver’s seat – where instead of being passengers, we’re in control, with just our skill, steady nerves, and knowledge to guarantee that we make it intact from point A to point B. White silk scarves, goggles, flight jackets, the sound of a propeller driven by a supercharged aircraft engine shredding the air, and yes, the nerves-of-steel atmosphere of aerial combat, are all part of the appeal. Of course, none of those things are features, nowadays, of modern civil aviation (well, the propellers are still around, but if you’re taking your Beechcraft Bonanza out to the Vineyard for the weekend, nobody’s going to try and shoot you down on the way) but that’s the world evoked by mechanical pilot’s watches. The environment in which mechanical Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 evolved was one in which utility trumped every other consideration, and it’s precisely that singular focus that allows pilot’s watches to transcend their utilitarian origins and evoke, powerfully, a bygone world. The original Breitling Navitimer is probably the most specific, in terms of purpose and function, of all pilot’s watches, but the term covers what’s actually a fairly diverse range of timepieces. The chronograph is strongly identified with aviation (to a significant extent, this is thanks to Breitling), but pilot’s watches can certainly be highly accurate time-only watches intended to aid in navigation (often with shielding against magnetic fields) and the category can include GMT and two-time-zone watches as well. Some of the most distinctive watches ever made were pilot’s watches, including the Longines-Weems Second-Setting watch and the Longines Hour-Angle. Like its brother-in-arms, the diver’s watch, the days of a pilot’s watch as an essential piece of gear in the cockpit are past; navigation today is a matter of GPS satellites and radar. But like diver’s watches, pilot’s watches still appeal, because the virtues of the world to which they are connected – bravery, the manifestation of hard-won skills, coolness under pressure – remain universally compelling. Behind every pilot’s watch is a dream of being, as they say, “a natural-born stick-and-rudder man.” As any student of aviation watches knows, Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 probably has more street cred as an aviation supplier than any other single watch manufacturer. The company started making cockpit instruments in its “Huit Aviation” department in the 1930s – its first aviation chronograph was made in 1936 (a black-dial model with radium hands and numerals). The first Chronomat, with a slide-rule bezel for general calculations, was produced in 1940 and of course, in 1952, the most famous of Breitling’s pilot watches was introduced: the Navitimer, with a bezel that’s essentially a miniaturized version of the E6B circular slide-rule flight computer (nicknamed the “whiz wheel” or “prayer wheel” by pilots) the first version of which was introduced all the way back in 1933. The interesting thing about the E6B is that unlike a pilot’s watch, it’s still an important part of modern civil aviation – albeit more often in digital form than not, but many flight schools still train student pilots on the E6B, many aviators still like having one in the cockpit (there isn’t an experienced pilot alive who doesn’t appreciate the value of backups to essential systems) and the FAA still encourages people taking knowledge tests for their pilot’s license to bring one along. The Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 is a very significant departure from what many of us had come to think of as the classic look of a Navitimer – that watch is rather more busy than not, and the flight-computer bezel, while instantly recognizable, is even more of an anachronism than the mechanical flight computer on which it’s based. I imagine there must be people out there who know how to use one but I’m not one of them – I have a Navitimer on my wrist as I write; I’ve had a couple of other flight computer bezel watches over the last couple of decades (from Seiko and Citizen) and I must have taught myself how to use the bezel on all of them at least half a dozen times but absent the incentive of sharpening real world flying skills, it never sticks. However, I still like that it exists and that at least in theory, it could be used for aerial navigation if need be; this despite the fact that as the years have accumulated, I’ve gone from finding the bezel, in use, merely hard to read, to finding it almost impossible to make out without a magnifying glass and very good light. The thought of having to use one in a poorly lit cockpit, with the primary navigation systems out, and with turbulence knocking my presumably small plane around the sky, is enough to make my blood run cold. It initially bothered a lot of people that Breitling’s new CEO, Georges Kern, introduced a family of watches with the Navitimer moniker but without the flight bezel – and I was one of them. It doesn’t bother me now though. For one thing, if you want a wrist-mounted whiz-wheel wristwatch, Breitling still has them (I count a dozen different versions in the current catalog. And for another thing, after spending some time in the cockpit of one of the most modern small private jets, I’m beginning to think that the emphasis the new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 places on instant legibility over the inclusion of a functionality that, in a modern aircraft, is a backup of a backup of a backup, makes a lot of sense.

Before we talk about what the Breitling Navitimer 8 B01 is like in the cockpit, let’s talk about what it’s like wearing it where most people who own one are going to wear it: on the ground. In some respects, this watch is straight from the decades-old Breitling playbook we’ve all come to know and love – or not love, as the case may be. It’s a large, and on the bracelet it came with on loan from Breitling, rather heavy watch: 43mm x 13.97mm, which although definitely on the wide side, is actually smaller than the current-issue whiz-wheel equipped Navitimer 1 B01, which sits at 46mm in diameter. The absence of the flight computer bezel makes the watch seem to wear about as big, though; however, without the visual clutter created by the flight computer scales, the Navitimer 8 B01 is a far more legible watch, with excellent and pretty instantaneous readability day or night.

It does take a little getting used to, although not as much as you’d think – we’ve had a darned hot summer here in New York and I’ve been wearing a lot of dive watches (both on and off duty) and so switching over to a larger, stainless steel chronograph has been a lot less of a transition than it might be in fall or winter, when a smaller watch on a strap is more likely to be on your wrist (and mine). The bracelet is very well made, but for me it feels like rather a lot of metal – were I a gent of more imposing stature, this would of course be less the case – and were I to wear the Navitimer 8 B01 on a longer term basis, at some point I’d probably switch the bracelet out for a strap (Breitling makes a very nice alligator strap and of course there are a plethora of other third-party options). The movement is something Breitling’s had around for some time now but the company’s proud of it, and with reason: the chronograph caliber Breitling 01 was first introduced at Baselworld 2009, and since then, this modern, vertical clutch, column-wheel-controlled, in-house movement has earned a reputation as a solid, reliable piece of work as you could want in a 21st century tool watch. It’s even in use, slightly modified, by Tudor, in the Black Bay Chronograph. I’ve always found operation of the chronograph pushers in this movement to be a little on the stiff side, and in another context I’d be more inclined to take exception, but the unambiguous let-off for start, stop, and reset has the advantage of giving very clear tactile feedback as to whether or not the operation desired is underway. It’s not, despite Breitling’s somewhat deserved reputation in recent years for making rather flashy watches, a flashy watch – on the wrist it’s actually a pretty sober presence, which I think would make it, over a period of months or years, a pretty regular part of mine or anyone’s rotation. As a very solid entry in the under-$10k in-house automatic chronograph realm, it ought to be an interesting choice for anyone who wants a vintage-inspired watch that doesn’t overstate its connection to the past, has a technically up-to-date mechanism, and still feels strongly connected to the original environment that gave rise to the genre of which the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 is a part. No, it doesn’t feel like a whiz-wheel Navitimer, but it certainly feels like a pilot’s chronograph (the size is actually a part of the reason why) and it very much feels, to this non-pilot pilot’s watch enthusiast, like a pilot’s watch and not, so to speak, an illustration of a pilot’s watch. One interesting feature of the Navitimer 8 B01 is that it does still have a two-way rotating bezel, albeit a very simple one with just a single discreet triangle showing where the bezel has been set. I wondered at first what the point might be of having two ways of measuring elapsed time intervals; within a couple of days of getting the watch in for a test drive, I found myself using it along with the chronograph to time simultaneously running dryer and laundry loads. That is about as resolutely ground-bound and unromantic a use for the watch as I can imagine, but I took the point that there are probably many situations where having both would be, if not essential, certainly practical and useful.

Now one of the most commonplace observations you can make about tool watches like pilot’s watches and diver’s watches is that for the most part, they won’t be used by pilots or divers – that is to say, they won’t ever see the ocean depths, nor in the case of a pilot’s watch, are they likely to be seen on the wrist of someone in the driver’s seat of a modern aircraft. In the interests of seeing just what this watch looks and feels like from that perspective, we reached out to Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 to see if, thanks to their many connections with aviation – the Breitling jet team is still very much a part of the company’s aviation activities, and recently Breitling sponsored the flight of a vintage DC-3 around the world – they could, as the kids these days say, hook us up.

This week on the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 Weekly podcast, the trio is finally back together, with David returning from his holiday! Things kick off with a long conversation about watches in media and culture and then shift to Ariel’s recent Featured Article about CPO watches. Ariel then discloses the dark secrets of the Annual Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike contest he attended in Key West. Then it’s on to a slew of new releases from Citizen, Breitling, Swatch, and more! Listen below or on the player of your choice.
As one of the most famous luxury watch brands in the world and the company responsible for inventing the modern two-pusher chronograph, Breitling has quite a few noteworthy models in its portfolio. With that in mind, the Navitimer is easily Breitling’s most famous watch, and its unique slide rule bezel has made it one of the true icons from the world of horology. Although the inaugural Chronomat was technically the first Breitling model to feature this signature detail, it ultimately became the Navitimer’s calling card, and when someone says the word “ Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 ,” it is usually the Navitimer that first comes to mind. I’ve always admired the Breitling Navitimer, and I love how the highly utilitarian design of a wrist-mounted analog flight computer ultimately became one of the most recognizable luxury watch designs in the world. However, as someone who has fairly thin wrists, most of the Navitimer models that have been released over the years are just a bit too large for my personal preferences, and their inherently rather bold styling does little to mitigate their size. Despite objectively being a fan of the Navitimer, it has always been a model that I have admired from afar. However, Breitling has been significantly expanding its signature collection in more recent years, and the current Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 is a model that I could easily see myself wearing in everyday life.
The current Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 collection includes watches with case sizes that range from 35mm to 46mm in diameter, with the chronograph models available in 41mm, 43mm, and 46mm. That said, it is the 43mm version of the B01 Chronograph that is the core offering within the lineup, and while 43mm still represents a fairly sizable case diameter, it is significantly more manageable compared to the 46mm and 48mm monsters from the brand’s back-catalog that often come to mind when someone thinks of the Navitimer collection. On top of that, the listed 43mm dimension actually refers to the diameter of the grooved rotating bezel that hangs over the edge of the case, and if you measure the diameter of the middle case itself, it actually comes in closer to 41mm with an overall lug-to-lug profile of approximately 49mm. Similarly, the official thickness of the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 is 13.6mm, but that also includes the domed sapphire crystal with blue anti-reflective coating that sticks up above the rim of the bezel. While a 43mm Breitling Navitimer is hardly a shrinking violet, the watch itself ultimately wears noticeably smaller than its on-paper dimensions might otherwise suggest.
Further helping mitigate the perceived size of the watch is its case finishing, and the sides of the stainless steel middle case receive linear brushing that contrasts against the polished top surfaces of the lugs. A similar approach is taken with the finishing on the pushers, which have brushed sides with high-polished ends, and these brushed surfaces throughout the case components helps temper what can sometimes be a rather “blingy” overall appearance when fully high-polished. Beyond that, everything else is very much what we have come to expect from modern Breitling Navitimer watches, and the B01 Chronograph 43 features a large signed winding crown flanked by two pushers, along with a screw-down caseback that is fitted with a sapphire display window to offer a view of the internal movement. Given that the Navitimer is a pilot’s watch, water resistance isn’t really a priority, and the inherent nature of the model’s complex design creates multiple points for potential water ingress. While the Navitimer isn’t going to be your underwater timekeeping companion (that would be the Breitling Superocean), it is still sufficiently protected against daily incidental encounters with a fairly standard 30 meters of water resistance.
At the present time, Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 offers the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 with a variety of different dial colors, but the particular example I received for review is the ice blue version with black sub-dials. The primary surface of the dial is a metallic pale blue color with a prominent sunburst finish, applied polished batons for the hour markers, and the fan-favorite AOPA wings emblem sitting just below the 12 o’clock location. The trio of recessed sub-dials and the internal rotating slide rule bezel are all finished matte black for added contrast, and neatly sitting inside the sub-dial at the 6 o’clock location is a rectangular aperture that functions as a date window. To help promote legibility with the ample amount of text, the printing is done in black on the ice blue surface, while it appears in white against the black sections, and in typical Navitimer fashion, a different color (bright red in this case) is used for the key markings on its slide rule bezel. All of the hands receive polished surfaces to match the hour markers, although the hour and minute hand get furnished with thin luminous inlays, while the seconds hand is painted bright red for added contrast and increased legibility when using it in conjunction with the logarithmic scale on the bezel. Everything about the overall layout of the dial is very traditional and exactly what you expect from a Navitimer, yet the mix of metallic ice blue with small pops of bright red ultimately create a fresh aesthetic that nicely toes the lines between resplendent and sporty.
Powering the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 is the brand’s Caliber 01 automatic movement. Originally introduced in 2009, the Breitling 01 is the brand’s flagship in-house chronograph caliber, and it can now be found in a wide variety of different models that are currently in production. The 47-jewel integrated chronograph movement features a column wheel with a vertical clutch, and it runs at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz), while offering users a power reserve of approximately 70 hours. In addition to being a twelve-hour chronograph with a date display, the Breitling Cal. 01 movement is also a COSC-certified chronometer, which means that it is guaranteed to keep time to within -4/+6 per day. Although the Caliber 01 is essentially Breitling’s workhorse chronograph movement, it is reasonably decorated and nice to look at through the Navitimer’s display caseback, and it includes Geneva stripes and gold-filled engravings on its skeletonized rotor and upper bridges. In real-world use, I found that the Breitling Caliber 01 movement keeps time within its intended specifications, and the column wheel mechanism offers a nice and snappy action whenever starting or stopping the chronograph.

For 2022, Breitling has redesigned its iconic Breitling Navitimer Chronograph watch, which for decades has been a staple of high-end tool timepieces originally designed for commercial airline pilots in the early 1950s. The Navitimer has seen countless iterations over the years and is one of the world’s most recognized luxury sports watches. It has not, however, experienced a recent makeover under Breitling’s current stewardship by Georges Kern. The updated Breitling Navitimer for 2022 is known officially as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph and comes in three case sizes with a variety of different dial options, many of which have never been offered in a Navitimer watch before. The aBlogtoWatch team was able to go hands-on with all of the new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches and below is our take on this modern version of a timeless classic. For me, the Navitimer has always been a staple of tool watches because of its focus on computational utility. Its core design element is a slide-rule bezel that once allowed pilots to make various necessary calculations such as time to their destination or fuel consumption rate. The rotating slide-rule bezel mixed with the chronograph offered a small universe of capabilities. Only the smartest and most competent pilots would be seen wearing such a wrist 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 timepiece 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 Breitling designed the new Navitimer. First of all, it was the brand’s goal to make the Navitimer look and feel as pleasant as possible while fitting into contemporary trends in luxury timepieces. That means the watches also need variety and be able to appeal to multiple audience sizes and color preferences. While the slide rule feature is truly iconic, few Navitimer customers are known to actually use this piece of functionality, which means the feature needs to be there but Breitling doesn’t really talk about it much. In fact, Breitling has a series of prototype Navitimer watches with more water resistance (hard to accomplish with the bezel functioning as it does). None of those ever made it to market because the resulting watch cases don’t really look “Navitimer enough.” So, Breitling’s goal with the redesigned Navitimer is mainly two-fold: to create a commercially successful luxury watch that fits into Breitling’s “relaxed luxury lifestyle” brand personality, and to offer a product that looks and feels like the classic Navitimer enthusiasts love. Note that to make the dial a bit cleaner, this generation of Navitimer Chronograph watch dials do not have a tachymeter scale, and I don’t think a single person will really miss it. It was also important that Breitling get to feature its extremely competent in-house caliber B01 automatic chronograph movement but also to make the Navitimer case thinner. Older Navitimer watches are thinner, but they are also manually wound (versus automatic). The 2022 Navitimer watches are about 1.5mm thinner than previous-generation models, and they also feature an exhibition caseback. The case thinness (they are all about 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, as was the case on previous models. The dial doesn’t appear flat, however, thanks to the recessed subdials. Many people will not notice, at first glance, the different architecture of the Navitimer dial, but it is very apparent once you start to inspect it or compare it to other recent Navitimer Chronograph watches. Breitling decided to go very commercial with the dials in terms of colors and finishing. That’s 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 and copious reflective surfaces test well with luxury seekers but make the new Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches quite “blingy” when compared with the classic models. Adding to that look are new colors, including two different greens (one is a fun mint), two blues, and a variety of grays, whites, and black tones mixed together. There are even 18k red-gold case options in addition to the main steel-cased versions to offer an even more high-end feel. The dials are very nice, but I prefer a more matte style to watches with this level of dial detail, and for the snazzier shiny look, I am still very much taken by Breitling’s Chronomat 42 masterpieces. For me, the most jarring aspect of the new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph case design is the polishing. While not always true, most recent Navitimer watches have had all-polished cases — really nice polished cases. For 2022, Breitling goes a different route by maintaining the core Navitimer case style but offering both polished and brushed surface finishing over the case and the available bracelet. This adds a lot of visual interest to the case and bracelet, but the dual-finishing of the 2022 Navitimer watches do make them stand out from the rest of the modern versions of the watch and will probably help them stand out to customers who have previous-generation Navitimer models. On the dial, we see a return to the AOPA Breitling “wings” logo, which has been used on some retro-remake models but no standard collection pieces, until now. Breitling CEO Georges Kern presided over the Navitimer B01 Chronograph launch event and explained something very interesting about the brand’s logos. The problem is that none of the current logos work with all of the watches. Some logos appear better on the modern watches but not the classic ones. Some of the watches have just a Breitling “B,” and others have mere graphic logos. It is great that Breitling has so much history to pull from to make this possible, but it is also interesting that the brand’s current logos don’t actually work well on all watches. Breitling isn’t the only watch brand now to play with different logo designs on contemporary watches but probably has the best reasons to use multiple logos across product collections. To serve the needs of various customers (including women), Breitling made the correct decision to offer what is essentially the same watch in three different case sizes. It is true that some dial color configurations are only available in some sizes, but for the most part, Breitling makes sure that the 41, 43, and 46mm-wide Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches are more or less the same in terms of style and look. Having worn all three sizes, I would say that my personal preference is the 43mm wide version, but I would gladly wear any of them. The cases are water-resistant to 30 meters, and 13.6, 13.69, and 13.95mm thick, respectively. Watch size is a matter of taste and not a matter of correctness. So the correct size for you will depend on your anatomy and, to a degree, the watch dial colors that you prefer. Breitling’s B01 automatic chronograph movement powers each of these watches and, for the first time in a Navitimer Chronograph piece, you can see the very nice movement through an exhibition caseback. This was designed by former Rolex engineers who worked on the chronograph movement inside the Daytona and is very accurate. Each is a COSC-certified Chronometer and operates at 4Hz with 70 hours of power reserve. The watch features the time and date (integrated into the lower subdial), as well as the 12-hour chronograph. All of the watches are available on a brown or black alligator strap, or a matching seven-link metal bracelet (steel or gold depending on the version). The bracelet option (in steel) costs just $400 more and also features a new butterfly-style deployant clasp, a serious upgrade from the previous fold-over deployant clasps.

For 2022, Breitling has redesigned its iconic Breitling Navitimer Chronograph watch, which for decades has been a staple of high-end tool timepieces originally designed for commercial airline pilots in the early 1950s. The Navitimer has seen countless iterations over the years and is one of the world’s most recognized luxury sports watches. It has not, however, experienced a recent makeover under Breitling’s current stewardship by Georges Kern. The updated Breitling Navitimer for 2022 is known officially as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph and comes in three case sizes with a variety of different 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 and below is our take on this modern version of a timeless classic.
For me, the Navitimer has always been a staple of tool watches because of its focus on computational utility. Its core design element is a slide-rule bezel that once allowed pilots to make various necessary calculations such as time to their destination or fuel consumption rate. The rotating slide-rule bezel mixed with the chronograph offered a small universe of capabilities. Only the smartest and most competent pilots would be seen wearing such a wrist 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 timepiece 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 Breitling designed the new Navitimer. First of all, it was the brand’s goal to make the Navitimer look and feel as pleasant as possible while fitting into contemporary trends in luxury timepieces. That means the watches also need variety and be able to appeal to multiple audience sizes and color preferences. While the slide rule feature is truly iconic, few Navitimer customers are known to actually use this piece of functionality, which means the feature needs to be there but Breitling doesn’t really talk about it much. In fact, Breitling has a series of prototype Navitimer watches with more water resistance (hard to accomplish with the bezel functioning as it does). None of those ever made it to market because the resulting watch cases don’t really look “Navitimer enough.” So, Breitling’s goal with the redesigned Navitimer is mainly two-fold: to create a commercially successful luxury watch that fits into Breitling’s “relaxed luxury lifestyle” brand personality, and to offer a product that looks and feels like the classic Navitimer enthusiasts love. Note that to make the dial a bit cleaner, this generation of Navitimer Chronograph watch dials do not have a tachymeter scale, and I don’t think a single person will really miss it.
It was also important that Breitling get to feature its extremely competent in-house caliber B01 automatic chronograph movement but also to make the Navitimer case thinner. Older Navitimer watches are thinner, but they are also manually wound (versus automatic). The 2022 Navitimer watches are about 1.5mm thinner than previous-generation models, and they also feature an exhibition caseback. The case thinness (they are all about 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, as was the case on previous models. The dial doesn’t appear flat, however, thanks to the recessed subdials. Many people will not notice, at first glance, the different architecture of the Navitimer dial, but it is very apparent once you start to inspect it or compare it to other recent Navitimer Chronograph watches.
Breitling decided to go very commercial with the dials in terms of colors and finishing. That’s 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 and copious reflective surfaces test well with luxury seekers but make the new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches quite “blingy” when compared with the classic models. Adding to that look are new colors, including two different greens (one is a fun mint), two blues, and a variety of grays, whites, and black tones mixed together. There are even 18k red-gold case options in addition to the main steel-cased versions to offer an even more high-end feel. The dials are very nice, but I prefer a more matte style to watches with this level of dial detail, and for the snazzier shiny look, I am still very much taken by Breitling’s Chronomat 42 masterpieces.
For me, the most jarring aspect of the new Navitimer B01 Chronograph case design is the polishing. While not always true, most recent Navitimer watches have had all-polished cases — really nice polished cases. For 2022, Breitling goes a different route by maintaining the core Navitimer case style but offering both polished and brushed surface finishing over the case and the available bracelet. This adds a lot of visual interest to the case and bracelet, but the dual-finishing of the 2022 Navitimer watches do make them stand out from the rest of the modern versions of the watch and will probably help them stand out to customers who have previous-generation Navitimer models.
On the dial, we see a return to the AOPA Breitling “wings” logo, which has been used on some retro-remake models but no standard collection pieces, until now. Breitling CEO Georges Kern presided over the Navitimer B01 Chronograph launch event and explained something very interesting about the brand’s logos. The problem is that none of the current logos work with all of the watches. Some logos appear better on the modern watches but not the classic ones. Some of the watches have just a Breitling “B,” and others have mere graphic logos. It is great that Breitling has so much history to pull from to make this possible, but it is also interesting that the brand’s current logos don’t actually work well on all watches. Breitling isn’t the only watch brand now to play with different logo designs on contemporary watches but probably has the best reasons to use multiple logos across product collections.
To serve the needs of various customers (including women), Breitling made the correct decision to offer what is essentially the same watch in three different case sizes. It is true that some dial color configurations are only available in some sizes, but for the most part, Breitling makes sure that the 41, 43, and 46mm-wide Navitimer B01 Chronograph watches are more or less the same in terms of style and look. Having worn all three sizes, I would say that my personal preference is the 43mm wide version, but I would gladly wear any of them. The cases are water-resistant to 30 meters, and 13.6, 13.69, and 13.95mm thick, respectively. Watch size is a matter of taste and not a matter of correctness. So the correct size for you will depend on your anatomy and, to a degree, the watch dial colors that you prefer.
Breitling’s B01 automatic chronograph movement powers each of these watches and, for the first time in a Navitimer Chronograph piece, you can see the very nice movement through an exhibition caseback. This was designed by former Rolex engineers who worked on the chronograph movement inside the Daytona and is very accurate. Each is a COSC-certified Chronometer and operates at 4Hz with 70 hours of power reserve. The watch features the time and date (integrated into the lower subdial), as well as the 12-hour chronograph. All of the watches are available on a brown or black alligator strap, or a matching seven-link metal bracelet (steel or gold depending on the version). The bracelet option (in steel) costs just $400 more and also features a new butterfly-style deployant clasp, a serious upgrade from the previous fold-over deployant clasps.

Coming on the heels of the success of Singapore Airlines (SIA)-themed lifestyle products such as The Upcycling Project‘s fashion and homeware items made from retired parts of SIA aircraft, as well as the Batik Flora reed diffuser and eau de toilette spray perfume, SIA introduces something new that is sure to excite aviation enthusiasts: three limited edition pilot’s watches made in collaboration with esteemed Swiss watch brand Breitling as it marks the 70th anniversary of its iconic Navitimer timepiece.
The final product design of the limited-edition watches was a collaborative effort by Breitling together with valuable input from SIA pilots alongside the KrisShop team.

Both the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 Singapore Airlines Limited Edition and the Navitimer Automatic 38 Singapore Airlines Limited Edition feature Breitling’s legendary pilot’s watch in SIA’s distinct shade of blue, but where the former has an open-caseback view, the latter has an eye-catching batik print caseback design that pays homage to the airline’s rich heritage.

The Navitimer – short for navigation and timer – is beloved by pilots who use it to plan their flights using the circular slide rule located on the watch’s rotating bezel, and by collectors who like its sophisticated mechanism. Here’s what you need to know about the exciting collaboration between Breitling and SIA – two icons in the aviation industry.
While all Navitimer watches have a circular slide rule, baton indexes, a trio of chronograph counters and a notched bezel for easy grip, the three limited-edition SIA watches feature a flattened side rule and a domed sapphire crystal that creates the illusion of a more compact profile.

What distinguishes the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 from the Navitimer Automatic 38, apart from its 41mm diameter, is a slimmer silhouette on the oscillating weight that enhances the open-caseback view of the watch’s mechanism – the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, which is certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC). This movement is backed by a five-year warranty, provides approximately 70 hours of power reserve and allows the wearer to change the date – now visible through a discreet window in the subdial at 6 o’clock – at any time.

The Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 comes in a distinctive shade of blue that is representative of both Breitling and SIA. It is further enhanced with rose gold indexes and hands that add a touch of elegance and luxury. The quintessential mark of aviation distinction, the Singapore Airlines logo is etched on the crown and on the caseback with “One of 100″.
The Navitimer Automatic 38 Singapore Airlines Limited Edition has many of the same features as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41, but unique to this timepiece is its eye-catching batik print caseback that pays homage to the Singapore Airline’s rich heritage. While the Navitimer Automatic 38 omits the subdials, it retains a date window at the six o’clock position for a cleaner look. The watch’s Breitling 17 movement offers a 38-hour power reserve, with a two-year warranty. Like the B01 Chronograph, it comes in a distinctive shade of blue representative of both brands, and is further enhanced by rose gold indices and hands for a touch of elegance.
Breitling’s final offering in the collection is the Breitling x SIA Pilot’s Edition Navitimer that will be available exclusively to pilots of the Singapore Airlines Group. It features the same movement, colour scheme and etched crown logo as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41, as well as a flattened side rule and a domed sapphire crystal that creates the illusion of a more compact profile. It distinguishes itself with a larger 43mm case, which lends the watch an impressive wrist presence, and also increases the legibility of the dial, making it indispensable to professional pilots. The watch’s open-caseback is also engraved with its unique number and attitude indicator – an instrument all professional pilots will be familiar with.
The Navitimer Singapore Airlines Limited Edition will retail exclusively on KrisShop, under the Batik Label concept store, which spotlights one-of-a-kind collaborations featuring Singapore Airlines’ Batik Motif.