Breitling’s New Watch Puts the Concorde Supersonic Jet on Your Wrist
The Concorde may have last hit the skies over 20 years ago, but now Breitling is bringing it right to your wrist.
The watchmaker has just unveiled an all-new Navitimer that pays homage to the world’s only commercial supersonic jet (at least, so far), just in time for the 50th anniversary of the aircraft’s first flight.
The piece is a new take on the Navitimer B01 ChronographChronographA watch complication that incorporates a stopwatch function, controlled by pushers on the case and displayed on small subdials. Originally developed for timing events, the chronograph remains popular for itsGo to Chronograph Glossary 43, with all its usual aviator-centric bells and whistles, but, as you may expect, it has a few tributes to the Concorde woven in. In fact, the stainless-steel model channels what fliers would have experienced aboard the famed aircraft. The dial (and its matching alligator strap), for example, is done up in a deep blue, meant to match the hue of the stratosphere that passengers could catch a glimpse of while cruising at 60,000 feet on the Concorde. The bright white subdials and the inner slide rule are also a nod to the supersonic jet’s nickname, the White Bird, an ode to its white livery and striking exterior shape.
The new 43 mm timepiece, retailing for a cool $10,600, is limited to just 593, a reference to the jet’s powerful Olympus 593 engines. It houses the Breitling 01 caliber and also has a power reserve of 70 hours. Flip it over, and the caseback is etched with “One of 593, “Tribute to Concorde,” and “Jetliner.” You’ll also find an engraving that says “Mach 2,” which is how fast the Concorde could dart across the skies (which is faster than the speed of sound).
And the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Tribute to Concorde isn’t taking off on its own. Breitling also dropped a pair of Navitimer Perpetual Calendar Chronographs, a duo inspired by the sky-high attitudes that pilots call their own. The 43 mm models, either done up in steel and platinum or full platinum (limited to just 75 pieces), combine all those aviation details on its signature chronograph with an automatic perpetual calendar, in what the brand calls the most advanced movement to ever be housed in a Navitimer. The B19 Caliber, debuted back in 2024, offers up a day, date, month, and leap year indication, as well as a moonphase complication at 12 o’clock, in yet another nod to the cosmos.
That platinum iteration is home to a deep-blue dial like the Concorde tribute, and a white inner slide rule, too. Its sibling, meanwhile, has an anthracite dial meant to mimic the depth of space; the slide rule is here, too, paired alongside. either a brown alligator strap or a steel bracelet. You can snag the platinum model for $52,000, while the steel-and-platinum combo retails for $31,700.
Breitling has had a long history in the world of aviation. The first Navitimer was made back in 1952 for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, giving fliers the ability to draw up flight calculations right aboard their aircraft thanks the watch’s circular slide rule. And the model has even gone beyond our atmosphere, with the Navitimer Cosmonaute making its mark as the first Swiss wristwatch worn in space in 1963 (that model got a limited-edition reissue back in 2022). So it only makes sense that the brand continued to look to the skies for these new models.
This article originally appeared in Robb Report US.