Breitling Navitimer

A computer for the cockpit

Léon Breitling founded his company in Saint-Imier in 1884, and it stayed in the family through his son Gaston and grandson Willy until 1979. Breitling's ties to aviation were already strong by the late 1930s: in 1937 the British War Office invited Willy Breitling to design cockpit clocks for the Royal Air Force. In 1941 the company patented a circular slide-rule chronograph, and in 1942 it produced the Chronomat.

In 1952 Breitling engineered what it describes as the world's first wristwatch for pilots equipped with a circular slide rule: the Navitimer. The rotating bezel and the scale beneath it work like a pilot's handheld flight computer, letting the wearer multiply and divide and compute fuel consumption, airspeed and distance. The notched bezel was designed to be turned with gloves on.

The watch was made in response to a request from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. In 1954 the AOPA adopted it as its official timepiece, and early examples were available only to AOPA members, with the association's logo on the dial. From 1956 it was sold to the public with Breitling's 'winged B' logo. Sources differ on the launch date: Breitling and most histories say 1952, while Wikipedia gives 1954, the year of the AOPA watch.

806, Cosmonaute and Chrono-Matic

The first Navitimer, the reference 806, had a beaded bezel and a hand-wound chronograph movement, the Venus 178 in most early examples and the Valjoux 72 in some. Its three registers carried a 30-minute and a 12-hour totalizer.

In 1961 the astronaut Scott Carpenter asked for a version with a 24-hour dial. He wore the resulting reference 809 Cosmonaute on his 1962 space flight, and it is often called the first Swiss wrist chronograph worn in space. A commercial version carried both the Breitling and AOPA logos.

In 1969 Breitling introduced the first automatic Navitimer, powered by the Caliber 11 'Chrono-Matic' co-developed with Dubois-Dépraz, Heuer and Hamilton in a venture known as Project 99, with its crown on the left. The reference 1806 of that era had a 48 mm case with orange accents. Musicians and drivers took to the watch: Miles Davis wore one, as did the Formula One drivers Jim Clark and Graham Hill, and later Serge Gainsbourg, David Beckham and Jerry Seinfeld.

Crisis and revival

In 1979, facing financial difficulties, Breitling licensed the Navitimer design to Sinn, which still makes the Sinn 903 to the same pattern. That same year Ernest Schneider bought Breitling and moved production to Grenchen. In 1986 the reference 81600 'Old Navitimer' brought back a hand-wound version, on the Lemania 1873.

In 2009 Breitling introduced its first in-house chronograph movement, the B01. One review notes it was designed by former Rolex engineers who had worked on the Daytona's chronograph movement. The Schneider family sold an 80 percent stake to CVC Capital Partners in 2017, and Partners Group took majority ownership in December 2022.

For the Navitimer's 70th anniversary in 2022 Breitling redesigned the whole chronograph line. The slide-rule bezel became flat instead of sloped, cutting about 1.5 mm from the case, the AOPA 'wings' logo returned to the dial, and for the first time a Navitimer chronograph showed its movement through a sapphire caseback. New dial colors included blues, greens, copper and mint green.

The Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41

The 41 mm steel model is 13.6 mm thick; the 43 mm is 13.69 mm and the 46 mm 13.95 mm. Inside is the COSC-certified B01, an automatic chronograph at 4 Hz with a 70-hour power reserve, showing the time, a date integrated into the lower register, and a 12-hour chronograph.

Every version came on a brown or black alligator strap or a seven-link metal bracelet with a new butterfly clasp. Reference numbers encode size and metal: AB0139 for the 41 mm in steel, RB0139 for the 41 mm in red gold, AB0138 for the 43 mm in steel. The silver-dial 41 mm on bracelet, for example, is AB0139211G1A1.

Breitling has since added a 36 mm automatic and a 32 mm version (2023), a 747-piece Boeing 747 edition (2023), a Cosmonaute B12 limited to 250 pieces and a B19 perpetual calendar limited to 140 (2024), and a 50-piece platinum Scott Carpenter Centenary edition (2025).

Prices

At the 2022 launch, the 41 mm steel Navitimer B01 cost $9,000 on a strap and $9,400 on a steel bracelet; the 43 mm cost $9,100 and $9,500, and the 41 mm in red gold $18,500 on a strap and $37,000 on a gold bracelet. In October 2026 Breitling's U.S. site listed the 41 mm boutique edition AB0139A71G1P1 on a strap at USD 10,300.

The numbers

Reference

AB0139 series (41 mm steel)

Caliber

Breitling B01, automatic, COSC chronometer

Frequency and reserve

4 Hz, 70 hours

Case

41 x 13.6 mm, stainless steel, flat slide-rule bezel, exhibition caseback

Production

Navitimer since 1952; current B01 Chronograph design since 2022; numbers not published

Timeline

1. 1884

   Léon Breitling founds the company in Saint-Imier.

2. 1937

   Willy Breitling is invited to design RAF cockpit clocks.

3. 1941

   Breitling patents a circular slide-rule chronograph.

4. 1952

   Willy Breitling creates the Navitimer.

5. 1954

   The AOPA adopts the Navitimer as its official timepiece.

6. 1956

   The Navitimer goes on general sale with the winged B logo.

7. 1962

   Scott Carpenter wears the 24-hour Cosmonaute in space.

8. 1969

   First automatic Navitimer, with the Caliber 11 Chrono-Matic.

9. 1979

   Ernest Schneider buys Breitling; the design is licensed to Sinn.

10. 1986

    Reference 81600 'Old Navitimer' revives the hand-wound model.

11. 2009

    Breitling introduces its in-house B01 caliber.

12. 2017

    CVC Capital Partners buys 80 percent of Breitling.

13. Mar 2022

    Redesigned Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41, 43 and 46 for the 70th anniversary.

14. Dec 2022

    Partners Group takes majority ownership.

15. 2023

    36 mm and 32 mm Navitimers and a 747-piece Boeing 747 edition.

16. 2025

    50-piece platinum Scott Carpenter Centenary edition.

The world in 1952

• Feb 6, 1952

  George VI dies and Elizabeth II becomes queen.

• Jul 3, 1952

  SS United States sets out on her maiden voyage and wins the Blue Riband.

• Jul 19, 1952

  The Summer Olympics open in Helsinki.

• Nov 1, 1952

  The United States detonates the first hydrogen bomb, 'Mike', at Enewetak Atoll.

• Nov 4, 1952

  Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected U.S. president.

• Dec 1952

  The Great Smog of London causes widespread illness.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Breitling Navitimer is number 79 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (96 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Early Navitimers were sold only to members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
• Scott Carpenter's request for a 24-hour dial led to the Cosmonaute, worn in orbit in 1962.
• In 1979 Breitling licensed the Navitimer design to Sinn, which still makes the Sinn 903.
• The 2022 redesign flattened the slide-rule bezel and made the case about 1.5 mm thinner.
• The 2022 Navitimer chronograph was the first to show its movement through a sapphire caseback.