Breitling Watches

The origins of Breitling began in the Jura mountains of Switzerland in the late 19th century when Leon Breitling opened a workshop. In this workshop he created products for scientific purposes such as a chronograph. Breitling evolved in to a company that produces watches specifically for the purpose of aviation. In 1915 they developed their first wristwatch and over the next ten years made improvements in this area. A push piece was developed in 1923 (the first one to be made by any watch manufacturer). This enabled the watch to return to zero. In 1934 another push piece was added to the watch. These improvements made the watches particularly appealing to pilots and in 1936 Breitling became a supplier of time keeping equipment to the Royal Air Force and soon after was official pilots watch of the US Air Force.

A circular slide rule was included on the Chronomat, another of the classic watches which was released in 1942. The Navitimer, released in 1952, featured a “navigation computer” which let pilots navigate a flight plan. The innovations continued over the years and in 1962 the Cosmonuate was released and this watch included a 24 hour chronograph.

As part of a consortium of watch manufacturers Breitling developed the first automatic chronograph.

The death of Will Breitling came in 1979, which lead to the company being bought by Ernest Schneider who introduced a whole new range of watches for professions such as Yachting and diving. Watches for the aviation industry were still high on the agenda.

Breitling continue to make high quality watches and are a leader in Swiss watch manufacturing.