The Breitling Navitimer, long hailed as the quintessential pilot’s chronograph and distinguished by its signature slide-rule bezel, made its debut in 1952, with its built-in stopwatch powered by a manually wound Valjoux 72 movement. Since 1969, the Navitimer has primarily contained one of the newer, self-winding chronograph calibers, initially the legendary Chrono-Matic Caliber 11 and eventually, as of 2009, Breitling’s own in-house Caliber B01.
Today, Breitling has unveiled two new expressions of the Navitimer that take a step back to vintage styling, not only in their outward appearance but in their use of old-school, manually wound calibers, both of which join Breitling’s regular collection for the first time. One is the Breitling Navitimer B09, which hearkens back to a cult-classic model from the ‘60s and houses the hand-wound Caliber B09. The other is the Navitimer B02 Cosmonaute, the latest re-edition of the legendary 24-hour timer that famously emerged from a collaboration between Breitling and astronaut Scott Carpenter, who wore a Navitimer into space in May 1962.
The vintage Navitimer that most closely informs the new B09 model’s design is the Ref. MK5 806 from 1964, known as the Twin Jet Navitimer and famously worn by racecar drivers (and, notably, former airline pilots) Jim Clark and Graham Hill, both of whom prized the Navitimer’s utilitarian design, in which the chronograph and the rotating circular slide rule can be used in concert to make calculations for speed, distance, and fuel consumption. The movement in that model was the classic, manual-winding Venus 178, which was discontinued in the ‘60s, but not before it was put to good use in some of the earliest generations of Navitimers, succeeding the Valjoux movement in the original.
The case of the new watch is more or less the same as that of its 1960s ancestor, 41mm in diameter and 13mm thick, in stainless steel, with a lug-to-lug width of 47.09mm. Under the case’s curved, antireflective sapphire crystal is a “reverse-panda” dial, in the classic Navitimer configuration, with a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, and running seconds at 9 o’clock, framed by the concentric scales used to perform calculations. Two color options are available, black or blue, both with contrasting white subdials and white printing on the scales. The absence of the date window at 4:30, a hallmark of this watch’s self-winding forebears, allows for a thinner movement and, accordingly, a thinner case.
As for the movement itself, Breilting’s Caliber B09 — a variant of the base Caliber B01 with the automatic winding components removed but the column-wheel-driven, vertical-clutch-operated ¼-second chronograph functions intact — is put to work here for the first time in a watch that is a member of the core Navitimer family. (It was previously used in special editions only, like the recent Tribute to Miles Davis edition.) Breitling has also been kind enough to place this movement, with its 70-hour power reserve, 28,800-vph frequency, and COSC-certified chronometric accuracy, behind a clear sapphire caseback, allowing the owner to admire its high-horology finishing, unhindered by the large oscillating mass found on the movement’s automatic siblings.
The Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute traces its history to the 1960s Space Race, and specifically 1962’s Mercury Atlas 7 orbital flight, during which Scott Carpenter wore his personal Navitimer, making it the first Swiss wristwatch to travel into space. After the mission, Carpenter consulted with Breitling to develop a version of the iconic pilot’s watch with a 24-hour (rather than 12-hour) dial, which made it easier for an astronaut in space to determine the time of day back on Earth. This first “Cosmonaute” model has remained a niche within the greater Navitimer collection, most recently relegated to limited editions, but this newest model finally brings the unconventional design to the core product family.Its distinctive 24-hour dial features white subdials on a black main dial, with the same layout as the B09 dials except for one notable exception: a color-matched date window tucked into the the 6 o’clock subdial to preserve the dial’s complex symmetry.
The in-house movement in the Cosmonaute is Breitling’s Caliber B02, which offers all the attributes of the base B01 (including the lengthy power reserve, chronometer-rated timing precision, and ¼-second chronograph with column wheel and vertical clutch) but places it all in a hand-wound package, staying faithful to the original Cosmonaute, which contained the Venus 178. Made by the brand exclusively for this model, Caliber B02 also has been modified so that the hour hand makes just one trip around the dial rather than two, in order to keep the time in the dial’s 24-hour format. Like the B09 in the above models, the movement is displayed behind a sapphire exhibition caseback.
Further solidifying both these new watches’ retro aesthetic is the use of the Twin Jet logo in gold on the dials, an emblem first used in 1965 as a civilian alternative to the AOPA (Airplane Owners and Pilots Association) logo found on the earliest 1950s Navitimers, which were marketed exclusively to members of that organization. Both watches incorporate the Navitimer’s characteristic pump pushers and are water-resistant to 30 meters. The Navitimer B09 comes mounted on a hand-applied gradient leather strap — brown for the black-and-white-dialed model, and a matching dark blue for the blue-and-white-dialed version — while the Cosmonaute, with its black “reverse panda” dial, is on a brown leather strap. Alternatively, each has the option of being fitted on a meticulously finished, seven-row stainless steel link bracelet.
The Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 is priced at $7,900 on the calf leather strap and $8,400 on the steel bracelet; the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute goes for $10,600 on the strap and $11,000 on the bracelet.
For more information, visit the brand’s website here.
