Breitling’s biggest marketing success of the last few years has been to abandon the use of the celebrity ambassadors traditionally employed by luxury brands and to concentrate instead on groups of like-minded individuals – or ‘squads’ – to promote specific watch ranges.
There has been the Breitling Cinema Squad (including Brad Pitt), the Surfer Squad (including Kelly Slater) and the Explorer Squad (including Bertrand Piccard).
This idea was taken to surreal new heights in 2021 when the company announced its latest squad, one comprised of three dead men dating back to the 18th Century. The Founders Squad, or, ‘the men who made Breitling what it is today’, comprised Léon Breitling, who founded the company in 1884, his son Gaston, who in 1915 created one of the first wrist-worn chronographs to feature a stop-start pusher at 2 o’clock, and Léon’s grandson Willy, who patented the second chronograph pusher at 4 o’clock two decades later.
The Founders Squad – presumably one of the brand’s more cost-effective signings – were clearly deployed to remind customers of Breitling’s watchmaking heritage, particularly when it comes to developing chronographs. The trio were used to promote a handsome new line of 1940s-inspired chronographs, the Breitling Premier Heritage Collection, that sat within the brand’s higher-end Premier line.
Today that Premier line gets some new members to its family, all featuring updates to the dial as well as brand new movements.
The five new 42mm models come in salmon, blue, green, black and cream, with a sixth variation being produced in 18k red gold – also with a cream dial.
The main selling point for Breitling is its use of its own in-house mechanical movement in these new models, the self-winding Calibre 01 that debuted in its Chronomat B01 in 2009, and has since been rolled out to other models. The Calibre 01 is certified to -4/ +6 seconds a day while the company says it has undergone testing equivalent to a 16-year aging process, including shock testing and crown testing. (Breitling has also today announced the Calibre 01 in its Top Time collection of watches, inspired by classic 1960s racing cars. The line is joined by a new model, the Top Time Ford Thunderbird.)
The new Premier models are available on either a crocodile leather strap or a stainless steel bracelet.
While some chronographs can look anaemically scientific, and some vintage-inspired watches can look like period drama props, the new Premier B01 Chronographs avoids both pitfalls to become what is now (to this writer’s eye) the brand’s nicest-looking line of watches. Well proportioned, in lovely colours, with tone-on-tone chronograph counters, date windows and slightly tweaked cases. As the brand itself says, it’s taken ‘the chronograph from tool watch to style statement’.
The launch also tees-up a new book, Premier Stories, a history of the Premier line by Breitling collector and historian Fred Mandelbaum.
“As Breitling’s historian, I’ve been living the wildest dreams of any passionate collector,” Mandelbaum says. “For this book, I was granted unprecedented access to the Breitling company archives… and was privileged to gain access to the family collection of watches, documents, photographs, and a wealth of personal memories.”
Except a strong showing from Léon, Gaston, Willy – and the extended Founders Squad members.
The new watches cost £7,200 on the leather strap, £7,450 on the bracelet. The 18k red gold version is £16,600 on the leather strap, £32,500 on the bracelet.
