The Breitling Premier is a perennial favorite amongst vintage watch enthusiasts; debuting originally in the 1940s, when most people were engaged in, you know, invading each others’ countries and generally causing mayhem, the Premier was a line of elegant sports chronographs that oozed elegance and class and spawned numerous interesting references. Breitling Director Georges Kearn has seen fit to return the company to its storied roots and slim down their product offering to those core historical references that offer serious value. Thankfully, there also seems to be a trend in place toward making smaller watches again. With that, we bring you the new Breitling Premier line:
Though Breitling has typically focused on professional (often aviation-themed) watches that come packed with functionality, the Premier was originally intended to be a simpler, more elegant take on the chronograph, and the new revamp is no different. What we have here is four new references with several different dials, including a time-only in three colors, a day-date in two colors, a two-register chronograph in three colors (including a special edition in partnership with Bentley), and a two-register chronograph in two colors. The time-only is called the Premier Automatic 40 and is a 40mm, steel-cased time-only watch with sub-seconds and a chronometer-certified automatic movement with 38 hours of power reserve. It’s available with a silver dial, anthracite dial or a beautiful blue dial on leather ($4,450) or a steel Navitimer bracelet ($4,750).
The day-date model is called the Premier Automatic Day & Date 40 and features an elegant, symmetrical 40mm steel case with central seconds, day and date functions and chronometer-certified automatic movement with 38-hours of power reserve. It’s available with a silver or black dial on leather ($4,450) or steel Navitimer bracelet ($4,750).
And now for the main event, two chronographs that echo the beautiful Breitlings of yesteryear: First up is the two-register Premier B01 Chronograph 42. This is a two-register chrono in steel with 30-minute counter and running seconds counter as well as date at 6 o’clock and tachymeter scale. It’s got a chronometer-certified automatic movement with minimum 70 hours of power reserve and is available on leather ($8,400) or a steel Navitimer bracelet ($8,700). Best of all, the dial options look pretty great, with a pandal version (white dial with black sub-registers), blue option with black subs, and a special Bentley edition with green dial and grey subs that comes with optional matching green leather strap.
The three-register chronograph, called the Premier Chronograph 42, adds a 12-hour totalizer and the Breitling 13 automatic, chronometer-certified movement with minimum 48 hours of power reserve. It’s available in a blue or black dial on leather ($6,250) or steel Navitimer bracelet ($6,550).
Breitling under the direction of Kearn is an entirely different animal than the Breitling of the past few years, and thus far, at least, we’ve seen some pretty stellar contributions to the company’s catalog that honor its heritage whilst updating historical references for the modern wearer. If the new Premiers are any indication, it seems that we can expect this trend to continue.
