ROOTS: BREITLING DEFINES FUNCTION AND FORM IN THE WRIST CHRONOGRAPH, 1915-1943

OPPOSITE:

Breitling ref. 765H, ca. 1940, Hahn cal. 42, 37.2 mm case: steel, hands: Sword

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Evolution from the very first Leon Breitling sports stopwatch to the final design language of Willy Breitling’s wrist chronograph

The Premier Story is very much the history of the chronograph, as any book about Breitling must be. It is Breitling’s specialty in every way and each of the brand’s three generations of founders played their part in shaping it. Leon Breitling patented the mechanism that would make his pocket chronographs manufacturable for the masses; his son, Gaston introduced the first wrist-worn version with an independent pusher at two o’clock; and his grandson, Willy, patented the second independent pusher at four. All three innovations were game changers of their times and, together, they defined the wrist chronograph as we know it today.

Vintage Premier, Duograph and Datora are cornerstones of my collection precisely because they represent the modern chronograph’s coming of age. But the best way to understand how it got there is to take a journey back to the beginning, not just to 1943 when Willy Breitling introduced the Premier line, but to 1884, when his grandfather, Leon, made it possible by setting down roots in the rarefied world of Swiss watchmaking.

This is the story of the people and the innovations that converged to define the Breitling brand and usher in a golden age of watchmaking. With the exception of a few fascinating side adventures along the way, that journey has always been about the chronograph.