Its called the Navitimer Caliber 01. Finally, an in-house B01 movement, housed in a versatile 43mm case with a EXHIBITION BACK! That’s right folks, finally the B01 is available with an exhibition back, albeit in a limited edition of 2200 (2000 in steel, 200 in 18K RG) of these Navitimers. Breitling has announced that the regular B01 equipped Navitimers will hit start hitting the streets next spring, but until then real aficionados can get their hands on one of these bad boys.
I’m not sure what one of these guys are gonna cost, but you can bet that I will be interested in grabbing one when they do come out. Beautiful Navitimer dial, with Swiss Made returning to the 6 o’clock position. Cool new date wheel font in red. The 43mm case is perfect size to me, but I can think of at least one of our forum members who will complain that its too small! 😉
Cool deep subdials and curved, double AR-coated sapphire glass.
Great view of Breitlings relatively newly developed in-house B01 movement.
Breitling released a new limited edition Cosmonaute, using the rigid Air Racer bracelet. This limited edition will be 1000 peices, and feature the Navitimer Cosmonaute 24-hour dial, in an automatic version. This watch uses the same Caliber 22 movement in current Cosmonautes, and really has very little difference besides the dial and bracelet. Same 41.5mm diameter case, and 30m water resistance.
This new dial is pretty nice, however. Note the addition of the “Swiss Made” Designation on the watch dial. Breitling is starting to re-incorporate this element.
Next up in my search for the ultimate sub-$500 watch is a Wilson Watch Works Navi, which I briefly talked about the other day.
The Wilson Watch Works (WWW) stuff is not very known, especially outside of ebay, but very impressive. I stumbled upon Wilson Watch Works when I was browsing through ebay at various watches using the Swiss Unitas 6497/6498 movements. These are hand made peices from the US, made from German crafted cases and dials, with Swiss luminova. Front crystals are all Sapphire, double AR coated, with rear exhibition crystal made from K1 Mineral.
The model I picked up is the Navigator, or that’s what I call it at least because of the navigator dial, as Chris at WWW does not have model names yet. Dials and cases are totally sterile. This one is 42mm, and bead blasted stainless steel. They are all available with any combination of cases, dials or movements. You can choose to have a seagull movement installed if you prefer, and will save you $150 or so.
As you can see, the semi-gloss black navigator dial is very nicely crafted, with expertly applied Swiss luminova on the all the outer markers and outer arabics. Hour and minute hands are also both illuimated.
I put mine on a German Pilot strap with rivets in a dark chocolate brown, and I think it looks fanastic. Chris offers them on either vintage or bund straps, but I am partial to the double rivet pilot strap so I sourced mine elsewhere.
The crown is very nicely crafted of solid stainless and finely bead blasted as well. The movement is nice and slack-free, unlike those chinese seagull unitas copies. The cases are manufactured by a company in Germany that also manufactures cases for Tourby watches and Lum-Tec, which sell nearly identical watches for almost twice the price, which is probably fair market value. Wilson Watch Works doesn’t have the same exclusive dial and case designs, but the quality is the same, and thus you save money.
This case uses lug screws, not spring bars, which is kind of nice. The screw threads are very strong and well threaded, and not likely to strip. They are polished, which gives a nice contrast to the blasted case.
Exhibition caseback showing the swiss made eta unitas 6497 movement, undecorated, but beating strong. Did not really check accuracy, but it was within seconds of my Breitlings that I synched it to over the course of a day. Of course the Unitas doesn’t have a date complication, but most days I can do without it – doesn’t stop me from looking for it though.
On my wrist, the 42mm case is fanastic. Probably the perfect size, though the spikey diamond crown digs into my wrist sometimes. But I love the watch and love the case. Everything about it screams quality… and at a price of $459, it certainly is worth the price and very close to the perfect $500 watch for me. I’d been eyeing the Tourby peices as well, but at $800+, they would really have to offer me something that WWW doesn’t. And until then, I’ll stick to my WWW Navigator.
This is my current favourite Navitimer of choice and the one that finds itself on my wrist the most often these days. Just thought I would share some pics with you. The Montbrillant Datora has a full calendar, but no date realisation in that it does not know which month has how many days. You will still have to adjust the date at the end of short months.
The one I have has a beautiful black dial, and larger 43mm case. The case on the Breitling Montbrillant Datora is slightly larger than the classic Navitimer cases which are 41.5mm. The difference isn’t huge, but it is noticeable, and appreciated in my case.
I put it on a Navitimer Bracelet, which suits the watch well. The lugs are 22mm wide, and the watch actually looks equally good on a crocodile bracelet as well. The Breitling Caliber 21 movement is based on on a Valjoux 7751 which is basically a Valjoux 7750 with additional features.
Overall, a very nice watch and one of my keeper Navitimers for the time being. I enjoy the 43mm size as its not too big, and not too small. Very wearable in almost any situation that I find myself in. I hope you enjoyed the pics!
This is a video review of the Breitling Navitimer Montbrillant Legende. Hefty 47mm Bronze dial, integrated bracelet… beautiful watch! Everyone that has seen this watch (especially the ladies) has been impressed. Even people who have typically been uninterested in Navitimers have taken a liking to the Bronze especially.
