Breitling
www.breitling.com

Breitling was founded by Léon at St-Imier in the Swiss Jura in 1884. From the start, Breitling has always specialized in the manufacture of chronographs and very soon supplied the first pilot’s wristwatches. For as long as one can remember, the word Breitling had made people think of aeronautics. In 1923 Breitling presented the first independent chronograph push-piece, since before that the functions operated on the winding-button. In 1934, it developed the second push-piece for return to zero, which gave the chronograph its present shape. In 1936, Breitling was appointed official supplier to the Royal Air Force. This was the point at which its major co-operation with world aviation and pilots throughout the world began. 1952 saw the birth of the famous Navitimer, an authentic "watch-instrument" equipped with its famous circular slide-rule for carrying out all the calculations required for navigation. In 1979, Ernest Schneider, a pilot, took Breitling over from Willy Breitling, and 1984 saw the presentation of the famous Chronomat and the announcement of the relaunch of the chronograph. In 1995 came the issue of the Emergency, a multifunctional watch-instrument equipped with a miniaturized emergency signal transmitter operating on 121.5 MHz, the aviation distress frequency. In 1999, Breitling decided to submit all its watches to the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (the official Swiss watch-testing bureau). In 2002, it launched the Breitling for Bentley collection, a classic thoroughbred collection. Today the Breitling headquarters are at Granges, with a unit specializing in the manufacture of mechanical chronograph movements at la Chaux-de-Fonds.