A VISIONARY STRATEGY

The 1940s was when Willy Breitling dared to reimagine the chronograph as a practical, personal item that could transcend the niche segments of military and industry. But even that may be an understatement, as I truly believe Willy was hellbent on seeing the chronograph take over the world. Nowhere is that as clearly reflected as when you watch him weave his strategic nets. When move after move seems logical, planned. When a product line is formed in technology, design, positioning, branding and advertising. When you see how he builds his international distribution network with country representatives and wholesale customers like Tourneau, Aerotel, Tavannes, Clebar, Kronometer Stockholm, Singer and Cyma, to name a few, who would market his chronographs under their own brand names.

From the 1950s onward, Willy’s moves are well recorded. Breitling’s archives contain market research, strategy papers, worldwide advertising plans and stylebooks for in-store displays, along with hundreds of pages of studies and sample advertisements. Some of these were created during Willy’s time as head of the Association of Swiss Chronograph Manufacturers, during which he developed a highly successful strategy for rejuvenating the chronograph—one that would lead to the development of the “Top Time” in the 1960s. The entry-level chronograph aimed at “young and active professionals” did, in fact, bring it back into fashion following a sharp and sustained drop in demand in the 1950s. But in the 1940s, Willy’s playbook was not so precisely documented. We have only the catalogs and watches from that period to tell the story of the elaborate game of chess he set into motion. Willy chose Venus SA to be his main ebauches supplier, his partner in innovation. The last Landeron-Hahn-based models shown in the 1940 catalog would disappear entirely by 1944, just as the “fancy-lug” additions to the original pocket-watch look of the early decades were also gone by that year. Gone too were the last of the “non-exclusive” waterproof steel cases, the Schmitz Freres clamshells, replaced by exclusive Breitling-designed models.

Willy also shows some exaggerated optimism in that 1940 catalog, as he displays the first wristwatch rattrapantes, although it would take until 1943 to be able to mass produce these complex mechanisms. But that was the point: Willy was unrelenting in his ambition. And he was not going to let a minor detail—like not being market-ready—curtail his grand designs.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Willy Breitling, 1944

1945 Duograph advertisement

Aerotel Premier ref. 787, 1947, Venus cal. 152, 34.7 mm case: steel, hands: slim lumed Syringe