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[Adams1985]

When he was only 20 years old, Leon Louis Breitling had already been watchmaker who possessed superb talent. In 1884, he opened his own studio which is the predecessor of Breitling company. Breitling constantly developed timepieces with sophisticated functions, and started producing chronographs named after his own name. In 1982, he moved the factory to Chaux-de-Fonds. At the beginning, Breitling company mainly produced pocket watches. Until 1914, it started producing watches with seconds-chronograph and luminous functions for the military. In 1915, Breitling produced the world's first chronograph wristwatch (Omega claimed that the earliest chronograph wristwatch was produced by it in 1913). Leon Louis Breitling and his son Gaston, as well as his grandson Willy loved sports and flying. Therefore, Breitling always has a tradition of devoting to developing sports watch and aeronautical equipment. Leon died in 1914 and Gaston died in 1927, Willy took over the Breitling company officially in 1932 and launched specialized aviation chronograph watch.
 

Navitimer Ref. 806
 
In 1927, Lindbergh(Charles Lindbergh 1902-1974) piloted Spirit of St. Louis and made an achievement of flying over Atlantic Ocean. This achievement made the flying become popular around the world, in the meanwhile, aviation developed rapidly. Willy Breitling discovered the great demand for accurate timing of aviation and transportation, thus Breitling company started producing matching accurate timers for aircraft instrument panel. Since then, Breitling produced products related to aviation. In 1939, British Air signed a great purchasing contract with Breitling, and other airline companies also did that. Until today, large aircraft manufactures like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed are customers of Breitling. In the history of aviation, 1940s was war times for many mysterious fighter planes. Among them, many second generation fighter planes were equipped with timers produced by Breitling. Until today, in order to represent the close relationship between Breitling and aviation, Breitling founded Breitling Fighters team, which gathered the most famous six fighters in the World War II and reappeared the glory during wartime to offer opportunities to people to have a look at these legendary Super Hero fighters.
 

Navitimer Ref. 806 Circa 1952
 
In 1952, Breitling company was moved to Geneva, while its factory was still in Chaux-de-Fonds. After many years of producing watches for aviation, Breitling products became more and more distinctive. Among a great deal of famous watches produced by Breitling, Navitimer that was launched in 1952 is the most famous one. The emergence of Navitimer brought extraordinary status to Breitling, it made Breitling become a sophisticated instrument, not only a timer. Furthermore, Navitimer got fame as Navigation Computer and won immortal status in the field of pilot's watch.
 

Slide Rule
 
At first, Breitling completed the design and trial-manufacture of the so-called Slide Rule in 1941 and got Swiss No. 217012 patent on September 30, 1941. The so-called Slide Rule refers to a rotatable rounded bezel that was marked with conversion index is equipped to the bezel, thus wearer could get the basic rounded result by simple multiply divide. Wearer could make carious calculations which are needed during the implementation of flying by the relative numerals of conversion index on the movable outer bezel and the inner fixed bezel. When it was invented, Slide Rule was called "Navigation Computer" in the early days, and this invention brought revolutionary breakthrough to the performance of watch. With the help of slide rule, pilots could do general multiplication, division and arithmetic of proportion; more difficultly, they could do conversion of radical. The most practical calculation in the flight is the calculation of navigation, including flight time, speed, distance, fuel consumption, fuel requirements, the rest time of cruise, and climbout height, climbout rate and the climbout time.
 

Chronomat 1947-1997
 
Initially, Breitling equipped the Slide Rule to Chronomat of 1947, until 1952, Breitling launched its most famous Navitimer officially. The name of Navitimer is composed of Navigation and Timer, which indicated that this watch has the function of chronograph, and it also has been equipped with the so-called Slide Rule to let the pilots check the flying plan, speed and fuel consumption. Navitimer became popular among professional pilots and ordinary watch fans as soon as it was launched. After many improvements, Navitimer gradually became a major series of Breitling, and it is one of the most famous pilot's watches nowadays. The model of initial Navitimer is Ref. 806, and it was equipped with three black chronograph sub-dials(60 seconds, 30 minutes and 12 hours), the dial was printed with the trademark of AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) Wing (Navitimer was elected as the appointed timer of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association), moreover, its slide rule rotatable bezel has multirow teethed with the shape of beads of rice. Its movement was hand-wound Venus 178, which has 17 jewels, column wheel chronograph mechanism, 1/5 second chronograph function, Incabloc shock absorber, and 18,000 bph frequency. Interestingly, the uppercase script of the letter B of Breitling's registered trademark was created by Willy until 1960s, and today's uppercase script of the letter B, anchor trademark and wing logo were designed upon in late days, which symbolize the Breitling's spirit of developing the land, sea and air.
 

Breitling Navitimer Ref. 806 AOPA
 

Caliber Venus 178
 
In 1962, Navitimer had a subtle change on Navitimer. The gear of rotatable bezel were changed to sharp tooth-shaped, the color of three small chronograph sub-dials was changed to white from black, except the sign of AOPA Wing on the dial, "BREITLING" was also printed on it. However, the sign of AOPA Wing was replaced by Double Wing on the subsequent Navitimer. Although Navitimer had the sign of AOPA Wing which was still produced by Breitling was specified as appointed timer of AOPA, Breitling passed a series of official chronograph tests of NASA at the same time. On May 24, 1962, United States astronaut Scott Carpenter piloted Aurora 7 to get into the second orbit in history with the Navitimer on his wrist. In order to memorize this great achievement, Breitling launched the third Navitimer in the same year, and its model is Ref. 809. Its dial has 24-hour markers, because astronaut can not tell day and night in the space. Ref. 809 was produced in two models in 1960s, one was signed as AOPA Wing while another one was signed as Double Wing. Ref. 809 was launched with the name of Navitimer as well as the name of Cosmonaute, and its movement was still Venus 178. But this movement was in short supply, a small quantity of Ref. 809 were equipped with Valjoux 7736, and the model is Ref. 809-36. Until 1967, Navitimer with the dial of 24 hours was renamed Cosmonaute officially, which was another series of Breitling.
 

Navitimer Circa 1967 with Doublewing Mark
 

Navitimer Cosmonaute
 
Probably between 1971 and 1974, Navitimer was restyled greatly. Ref. 806-36 without date window was equipped with Valjoux 7736, but not Venus 178 any more; Ref. 7806/8 with date window was equipped with Valjoux 7740, thus the fourth generation's chronograph dial was enlarged. From this model (the fourth generation) of Navitimer, Breitling discontinued the watches with the trade mark of AOPA Wing formally, it only produced the watches with the trade mark of Double Wing. For some "stubborn" watch fans, although the change of movement was due to the shortage of Venus 178, it seems that the fourth generation Navitimer was no longer the real Navitimer. However, there are also some watch fans consider that the fourth generation Navitimer with Valjoux movement was the most beautiful and mature Navitimer, because the enlarged chronograph sub-dials made the overall appearance of watch look nicer.
 

Navitimer Ref. 809
 

Navitimer Ref. 806
 
The renewed Breitling Navitimer (it was also called "Old" Navitimer) was equipped with Valjoux (ETA) automatic winding movement, and Kelek implemented the improvement and assembly. The accuracy of Breitling watches are assured by C.O.S.C, and the quantity of Breitling watches get certified from C.O.S.C every year is only second to Rolex's, it is the second highest one in the world (The third one is Omega). During this period, Breitling had launched Lemania Caliber 1873, Ref. A120 (it was equipped with 1877 hand-wound movement) and Navitimer Ref. A122 re-edition. Furthermore, the automatic winding Navitimer developed into many series like Navitimer, Navitimer Heritage, Navitimer Breitling Fighters, Navitimer Olympus (or also including Cosmonaute, Montbrillant, Montbrillant Datora).
 
In the 1970s, Breitling was also influenced deeply by the trend of quartz watches caused by Japanese watch industry, the pressure of its business and finance became heavier and heavier. Breitling was very reluctant to produce quartz watches firstly, but it still did not overcome the difficulty of operating, hence it launched the quartz model of Chronomat in 1975. However, Breitling did not extricate itself from the difficult position, and Willy Breitling was seriously ill, Breitling company was officially closed in 1979 finally, and it was acquired quickly by Ernest Schneider who also loves flying and shipping sports. In the same year, Willy Breitling died. The new Breitling company changed its operational strategy firstly to produce quartz watches. Nevertheless, the new Breitling company never forget the perfect persistence to timepiece and aviation of Breitling family, though it had a new management team. Eventually, it reproduced Chronomat which was equipped with mechanical movement in 1984, and it relaunched Navitimer mechanical watch in 1986.
 

Navitimer Cosmonautes
 
From the history of Navitimer's development we can know that Breitling company had proved that they constantly make innovations and design, and always pay attention to performance-oriented of the watch, hence they could give their products required features which meet the demands of special industries like aviation, navigation, and diving to make their watches become perfect products which possess practicality, functionality and diversity. Navitimer has not betrayed the glory tradition of Breitling, and it also consolidates the status of Breitling as the excellent factory to produce novel, unique and durable watch in watch industry, which is exactly the charm of Navitimer. Whether you like vintage Navitimer or the renewed Navitimer, when you wear Breitling Navitimer, you can feel its charm though you can not pilot a plane to fly over the sky personally.
 

Navitimer TwinSixty