Breitling SA

The Breitling SA is a watch company headquartered in Grenchen ( Switzerland ), the only high quality watches in the upper price segment offers ( from 3.000 € ).

History of Breitling

The company in 1884 by Léon Breitling ( 1860-1914 ) in Saint- Imier in the Bernese Jura was founded. In 1892 it was relocated to La Chaux -de-Fonds. 1914 Gaston Breitling takes to succeed in the footsteps of his father. In 1915, the Revue Internationale d' Horlogerie reports of a " Chronograph Bracelet » the house Breitling with central chronograph hand and a counter for 30 minutes. The development of the chronograph will be a focus of the house Breitling. 1923 already comes the next step, the introduction of the first independent chronograph pusher. 1934 followed by the second independent chronograph pusher which allows the resetting to zero. This configuration has prevailed due to their operating convenience and is today a worldwide standard. Since 1936, Breitling supplied the Royal Air Force with clocks for their aircraft. 1942 Breitling launches the Chronomat model, a chronograph with slide rule and hand winding, the very well received by the American armed forces is that it finally officially introduce in the U.S. Army Air Force. A great throw succeeds the designers from Breitling with the construction of the Navitimer in 1952. This Flieger Chronograph has, as a further development of the Chronomat, a more complex bezel, the more complicated calculations such as fuel consumption, climbing or Sinkflugraten, average speed, etc. fairly quickly can go out of hand. This model will be available in 1969, with automatic movement and is today with yet further complications (such as Perpetual Calendar, Chronograph Rattrapante, Retour en Vol) spread. The first diver's watch of the company reached in 1958 under the name Super Ocean to the market.

The automatic elevator stops in 1969 with the chronograph collection. A cooperation of Breitling, Hamilton - Buren and Heuer - Leonidas, composed of the Maschinenfabrik Dubois & Dépraz make this possible. In the same year but also succeeds Zenith Movado the integration of such a mechanism in their chronograph movement. In this respect, the decision of who was Primus here, remain open. In 1979, the company is closed due to unprofitability. This also suffers the fate of many Swiss manufacturers in the so-called quartz crisis.

Shortly before his death sold Willy Breitling, the name and trademark rights to the pilot and entrepreneur Ernest Schneider. Schneider was not a newcomer to the watch market and produced as early as the 1960s, watches under the brand name Sicura. After moving the production to Grenchen opened there in 1982, the Breitling Montres SA their production. 1984 Breitling launched the new Chronomat, the hits just the pulse of time and contributes significantly to the recovery of the chronograph. Today it is the leader in home Breitling. Based in part on the 1985 Aerospace sets created in 1995 with the Breitling Emergency is a milestone in the history of pilot watches. In addition to a multi-functional chronograph this clock integrates an emergency transmitter, the need to send a distress signal on the well- locatable valid for international air traffic frequency of 121.5 MHz. From this point on Breitling manage the balancing act between the production of high-quality mechanical watches and the implementation of functions that arise from the quartz technology. From 1999, all mechanical movements of the company through the Breitling chronometer test of COSC.

In 2001, Breitling decides to subject all electronic movements of the COSC testing. This only chronometers from the plants in La Chaux- de-Fonds and Grenchen be sold basically.

In 2002, the production of mechanical watches is outsourced to La Chaux -de-Fonds, the place where the company was in 1892. Also in 2002, Breitling is the first manufacturer to a to 3000 meters waterproof mechanical diving watch before.

For the 125th anniversary in 2009 Breitling presented under the name B01 at Baselworld a self-constructed ( "in-house " - ) chronograph movement. This work is COSC certified.

Breitling and aeronautics

Historically, Breitling has every reason to be aware of its aeronautical tradition consciously. This ranges from the creation of a simpler operation for the chronograph mechanism on the equipment of the British air forces with clocks to the recommendation of the Navitimer than by the AOPA Pilot in 1952. Too, very high orbits were not a problem for Breitling. Aboard the Aurora 7 capsule Scott Carpenter flew in May 1962, the earth. He was wearing a Breitling Cosmonaute.

Even today maintains Breitling such as, but also Fortis and Tutima, close contacts with military squadrons as well as to known aerobatic teams. After many decades of the undeniable dependence of the pilots of precision mechanical watches this liaison is at the present time, especially the image-building. High-quality mechanical chronographs today have more of a decorative character and serve the pilots to illustrate their traditions as well as the professional identity. In fact, only about 5% of all manufactured by Breitling watches for pilots to buy.

Breitling also sponsored the first successful circumnavigation of the earth in a balloon, the Breitling Orbiter 3 by Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard. They managed to circumnavigate the earth from 1 March 1999 ( start in Switzerland ) to 21 March 1999 ( landing in Egypt) non-stop in less than 20 days. Among other things, Breitling also sponsors the world's last remaining approved for passenger flights Super Constellation, which has been based on the Basel airport.