A New Direction with the Breitling Navitimer 8 Collection - Men's Folio
Time, News

A New Direction with the Breitling Navitimer 8 Collection

  • By Yong Wei Jian

With a new CEO at the helm, Breitling revisits the past to gain broader appeal with its debut Navitimer 8 collection.

“Accessible” may be anathema to Georges Kern, but his first creation as Breitling’s CEO has all the trappings of the term. The Navitimer 8 asserts his vision of the brand’s future — one that eschews hypermasculinity for cleaner wearability — and while hardcore dude-bros are up in arms over the lack of brawn (chill, the brand will still deliver watches outfitted with every macho superlative there is), the new pilot’s watch collection is a refreshing respite from the overt machismo that has turned certain people off.

SCHWEIZ BREITLING NAVITIMER 8 B01The Navitimer 8 derives its name from Breitling’s Huit Aviation department, which was set up in 1938 to produce cockpit instruments as well as pilot’s watches for military and civilian use — “Huit” (“eight” in French) references the eight-day power reserves of their onboard clocks. And while the other part of its name points to the slide-rule equipped Navitimer, the Navitimer 8 is not a true remake of Breitling’s most famous wristwatch. Instead, it’s an amalgamation of design cues from both, with a sprinkling of details from historic icons.

The revamp starts with the case: there’s the familiar notched bezel (though not as aggressive as the Navitimer’s), satin and polished surfaces (Kern has declared the end of full polishing), and lengthened lugs for better wrist comfort. On the dial, elements like the railway minute track, triangular markers and high contrast combination recall the look of aviation watches from the early to mid-twentieth century; the large Arabic numerals follow the specific style on Breitling’s Reference 768. Even the logo is redesigned, as the wings are clipped off the italicised “B” for modernity.

SCHWEIZ BREITLING NAVITIMER 8 B01There are five models in the collection — B01, Unitime (Breitling’s worldtimer), Chronograph, Day & Date, and Automatic — each with their own dial display and movement. The flagship Navitimer 8 B01 houses the in-house Breitling Manufacture Calibre 01, a COSC-certified chronometer with over 70 hours of power reserve, and is available in 43mm stainless steel with a black or blue panda dial (contrast dials will indicate manufacture movements moving forward).

Altogether, the Navitimer 8 proves that Breitling can take off in a new direction while staying resolutely true to its brand. But this is just the beginning, as the watchmaker is streamlining and re-categorising their fleet of high-flyers into three distinct segments: Elegant, Sports-Elegant, and the emblematic “Instruments For Professionals”. After all, one can only release so many bulky beasts before everything starts to look the same.