Breitling Watches
Breitling is a Swiss high end and luxury watch manufacturer primarily known for Certified Chronometers designed for aviation although they are commonly worn as luxury watches. Breitling watches are made in Switzerland from exclusively Swiss components.
The company specialized in making chronographs and precision counters was founded by Leon Breitling in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, in 1884 but it was relocated to La Chaux-de-Fonds at the time the center of Swiss watchmaking in 1892.In 1915, one year after Gaston Breitling took over the company, the company introduced the first wristwatch chronograph and developed the first independent chronograph pushpiece in 1923 which was followed by the second return-to-zero pushpiece in 1934. Breitling became the official supplier to the Royal Air Force in 1936 and since then the company is the leading supplier of cockpit clocks for most of the international airlines.
In 1942, Breitling launched the first chronograph with a circular slide rule but the greatest breakthrough was the introduction of the famous Navitimer in 1952 which shortly afterwards became the most favorite chronograph among the pilots. One of the greatest achievements of the company as well as of the manufacture of chronographs was the invention of automatic chronograph in 1969. Following the so-called Quartz Crisis in the 1970’s Breitling was purchased by Ernest Schneider in 1979. In 1984, Schneider launched the Chronomat which marked the new era of Breitling and became the best-selling Breitling collection which also features other watches with professional instruments such as the Aerospace, Emergency, B-1 and SuperQuartz.