Em primeira mão - em Zurique, com a Breitling, que reformulou totalmente o Navitimer

Breitling reformula toda a linha de um dos seus mais icónicos modelos, o Navitimer.

Estamos em Zurique, a convite da Breitling, que assinala os 70 anos do Navitimer com a completa remodelação da linha deste verdadeiro relógio de piloto de aviação profissional, com a sua lendária régua de cálculo circular.

Cronógrafo automático, com data, cronómetro certificado COSC, o Navitimer 2022 vem em caixas de 41, 43 ou 46 mm, e em aço ou ouro vermelho, com braceletes de pele de crocodilo ou metal). Os mostradores são azuis, verdes ou cobre opacos. As imagens, em primeira mão:

Diz Groege Kern, CEO da Breitling:

“We don't throw the term ‘icon’ around lightly. The Navitimer is one of the most recognizable watches ever made. It’s on collectors’ lists of the greatest watches of all time. What began as a tool for pilots has gone on to mean something profound to every single person who has had this timepiece along on their personal journey.”

Do comunicado de imprensa:

The de-facto pilot’s watch

Not even its inventor could have predicted the phenomenon the Navitimer would become. In 1952, Willy Breitling developed a wrist-worn chronograph with a circular slide rule that would allow pilots to perform all necessary flight calculations. Two years later, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the largest aviators’ club in the world, announced the design as its official timepiece. The association’s winged logo was emblazoned at 12 o’clock, and the “navigation timer”—or Navitimer—was born.

The Navitimer grew up alongside the burgeoning civil aviation industry. Beloved by airline captains and aircraft enthusiasts, it even made its way into space on the wrist of astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1962 as a 24-hour timepiece to tell day from night. And it wasn’t only pilots drawn to the watch’s irrepressible aesthetic. Celebrities of the day, such as Miles Davis, Serge Gainsbourg, Jim Clark and Graham Hill, were devotees, proving that the Navitimer had style as well as function.

An evolution in Breitling’s signature modern-retro style

To create the new Navitimer, Breitling preserved the most recognizable aspects of the icon's design code. From a distance, this is unmistakably a Navitimer, with its circular slide rule, baton indexes, trio of chronograph counters and notched bezel for easy grip. Up close, however, its modern refinements come through loud and clear.

A flattened slide rule and a domed crystal create the illusion of a more compact profile. Alternating polished and brushed finishings give the metal elements a lustrous, yet understated quality. A slimmer silhouette on the oscillating weight enhances the open-caseback view of the COSC-certified Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01. This movement is backed by a five-year warranty, provides approximately 70 hours of power reserve and allows the wearer to change the date—now visible through a discreet window in the subdial—at any time.

For the journey, celebrating what moves us

Today, after 70 years, the Navitimer has gone beyond being a tool used by pilots to navigate their course. It has become a symbol for those plotting their personal journeys through life.

Breitling celebrates this significance in a new campaign, NAVITIMER – FOR THE JOURNEY, featuring the Navitimer Squad, made up of basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland and aviation pioneer and explorer Bertrand Piccard. Each member has been on an incredible journey to get to where they are today at the top of their fields. Each one has charted a course and stayed it through sheer determination. And each one is on route to achieving their next set of ambitions. Using powerful visuals and the Squad Members’ own narration, the campaign gets to the heart of these moving journeys.

“This project means a lot to me because it celebrates not only where I was in life, but where I’d come from and where I am going,” says Misty Copeland. “There is an absolute parallel between navigating towards a physical destination and navigating towards the vision of where you want to be in life. You’ll see that theme come through in these three stories.”

The Navitimer has come a long way since Willy Breitling first drafted his idea for a wrist-worn flight tool. This redesign, with its focus on color, styling and inclusive appeal, marks a new phase in the Navitimer’s journey, one that blends Breitling’s modern aesthetics and values with its historic watchmaking savoir faire to create an updated identity for the iconic watch that started it all.