Breitling Chronomat Bentley

Bentley and Breitling have now been cooperating for 17 years. There aren’t any partnerships between the automotive industry and a watch manufacturer that lasted this long. For this reason, Breitling is presenting an edition of six different watch models throughout this year, all of which are also available from Bentley dealers. The latest model to be presented is the Chronomat, which in its original version debuted as a sports watch in 1984. Very thin quartz timepieces were in fashion at the time, but the mechanical Breitling Chronomat was able to impress with its elaborate movement and became an icon of its time. It also heralded the return of mechanical watches from Swiss manufacturers and thus successfully defied the quartz trend described above. At the time, the Breitling team took its inspiration from the wristwatch developed for the Italian aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori in 1983. The Chronomat soon found its way to aircraft pilots, but also to sailors and enthusiasts who preferred to keep both feet on the ground. Today, the current edition is an all-purpose sports watch that is a joy to wear on the beach, in the office and on the red carpet.

The 42 millimeter stainless steel case features a dark green dial with chronograph counters set off in black. Around the sapphire crystal there is a rotating bezel on which the digits for 0, 15, 30 and 45 minutes have been raised to protect the glass and to simplify the operation of this rotating ring. In addition, the inserted tabs for 15 and 45 can be swapped with each other to display an up-count and down-count function as desired. The Chronomat also relies on the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, developed in-house by Breitling, with a power reserve of around 70 hours. On the bottom is a sapphire crystal back with Bentley engraving. The Rouleaux stainless steel bracelet is held together by a butterfly clasp. Like all Breitling watches, the Chronomat Bentley also has COSC certification and is water-resistant to a depth of 200 meters. In the UK the price is 6,650 GBP and in the USA it is US$ 8,100.

Images: Bentley, Breitling