The History of the Breitling Watch Manufacturer

The history of Breitling dates back to year 1884 when Leon Breitling at 24 years of age opened a workshop in Saint-Imier in the Swiss Jura mountains. His company specialized in manufacture of chronographs and precision counters for industry and scientific purposes became a major success and in 1892 Leon Breitling moved his company to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the center of the Swiss watchmaking at the time. His son Gaston Breitling who took over the company after his father's death in 1914 has recognized the need for precision watches in aviation and introduced the first wristwatch chronograph in 1915 and the first independent chronograph push-piece in 1923. The company's growth continued under Gaston's son Willy Breitling who became the head of Breitling after his father's death in 1932. Two years later, Breitling developed the second return-to-zero pushpiece enabling to measure multiple successive short times and giving the chronograph its distinctive form. By 1936, Breitling became the official supplier to the Royal Air Force marking the beginning of its future close ties and cooperation with the international aviation. In 1942, the famous Swiss watch manufacturer launched the Chronomat, the first chronograph with a circular slide rule. At the same time Breitling became supplier to the American armed forces. In 1952, Breitling created its most famous men's watch – the Navitimer featuring revolutionary “navigation computer” enabling the pilots to make in-flight calculations. The Navitimer quickly became the favorite among the pilots all over the world. A version of the legendary Breitling watch was offered by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association with the AOPA logo on the dial in the 1950's and 1960's. At the same time Breitling also became a cockpit clock supplier to the leading international airlines. The company's reputation grew further when introducing the Cosmonaute chronograph with a 24 hour dial which was worn by the US astronaut Scott Carpenter during his space flight in 1962. The Quartz Revolution also known as Quartz Crisis was a major blow for Breitling like for most other Swiss watchmakers who refused to accept the quartz technology. Many Swiss watch manufacturers run out of business, some even closed their doors forever. During the difficult times, Breitling was taken over by former pilot and watch manufacturer Ernest Schneider who restored the former fame of the company and tied the Breitling watches with the aviation world even closer. The relationship of Breitling and aviation world was crowned with the Chronomat launched in close cooperation with the “Frecce Tricolori” elite fight team in 1984 and the Aerospace, a multifunction titanium electronic chronograph one year later. However, the new Breitling models also impressed the connoisseurs and the world of luxury watches. In 1995, Breitling launched another masterpiece – the Emergency, a multifunction instrument with a radio transmitter broadcasting on the 121.5 MHz aircraft distress frequency for 48 hours. Under normal circumstances, the signal can be picked up at a range of 90 miles (167 kilometres) by search aircraft flying at 20,000 feet (6,000 meters). The Emergency was followed by the B-1, the most versatile multifunction chronograph even made which is fitted with a specially designed microprocessor.All Breitling watches are certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) since year 2000, while its electronic movements SuperQuartzTM introduced in 2001 are the only electronic movements that meet the COSC standards.In year 2002, the company established Breitling Chronometrie, an unit specialized in mechanical chronograph movements in La Chaux-De-Fonds. Breitling associated with Bentley in 2003 which was crowned with the Breitling for Bentley collection of exceptional wristwatches. On the 125th anniversary in 2009, Breitling introduced its own high-performance selfwinding chronograph movement Caliber B01 manufactured completely in-house.