The Breitling Watch Source Forums

one more

_________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard

was surprised, and Georges has now corrected that; the Navitimer 8 is 43mm, not 44.

Back in the game!

_________________
Chrono Jetstream
Montbrilliant 1903
Aerospace E79362

think I can safely say that you'll see several watches in your 41-43mm "sweet spot" quite soon.

Ahh...so no 38mm Top Time remake then. Panerai has just announced a 38mm Luminor. The big watch fad is officially over

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

The brushed finish on the case is a great sign -- hope we'll be seeing this more generally from Breitling. Wonder if there will be a brushed Navi bracelet to go with this one?

_________________
Cheers,
Jim

I pray for the big watch fad to be over. My dream is to have a navitimer GMT at 38mm. Until now the Navitimer 92 is the closest to this.

Saw a Jan. 28th unveil date. Also talked about blacksteel on the automatic, not sure if there will be multiple options.

_________________
Chrono Jetstream
Montbrilliant 1903
Aerospace E79362

Am also seeing some conjecture that the "wings" logo will be phased out in favor of the traditional "B" logo across the brand...

_________________
Cheers,
Jim

I "like" the way you do things, Fred...

_________________
Cheers,
Jim

Just for fun, so long as the prolonged Navitimer 8 tease is going on, I'm going to engage in an exercise of pure random speculation. Time to think outside of the box! So, here goes:

1. Based on the Instagram posts of Georges Kern, we know that the inspiration for the Navitimer 8 comes from the "Huit Aviation" department, which was making Breitling's 8-day power reserve cockpit instruments.

2. The "Breitling 8" ad posted by Georges dates to 1941 (and is found on Page 84 of "Breitling: The Book"). Indeed, the Arabic numerals and the minutes/seconds track on the dial mirror almost exactly the look of the onboard Models 633 and 634 dating from 1941 (Page 88 of Breitling: The Book).

3. So, it would seem that the Navitimer 8 may well be a tribute to the aviation clocks/watches from the period that immediately preceded the era of the "modern" Navitimer. The model name "Navitimer 8" serves to distinguish it from the rest of the Navitimer line, and allows it to be something different -- something "related" to the ultimate modern Navitimer, but capturing the spirit of the immediately preceding decade in terms of cockpit clocks/watches.

4. All that being said, I think it's likely that the Navitimer 8 will not have a circular slide rule. The photographs thus far seem to indicate the absence of this feature. That could be explained by some Photoshop work to keep the intrigue alive, but, even if the slide rule has been airbrushed out, the physical layout of the dial/bezel depicted in the photos thus far doesn't seem conducive to housing the modern Navi slide rule.

5. Yet, Georges notes that the Navitimer 8 does, in fact, have a rotating bezel. Hmmmmm...

6. So, were there pilot watches from the "Huit Aviation" era that did not have circular slide rules, but did have rotating bezels? Indeed, there were! Page 87 of Breitling: The Book shows a number of such watches from the 1941 catalogue. The rotating bezels included a triangular marker that could be used to time minutes or hours -- a rough chronograph of sorts that was common on a number of such watches from different brands during that era.

7. The thing is though, that, on a watch with a B01 chronograph movement, like the Navitimer 8, such a feature would seem to be a poor substitute for the precision of the chronograph itself. That being said, even on a chronograph, there is still a place for a more full-scale timing bezel.

8. Putting all that together makes me wonder whether the Navitimer 8 might actually house an internal timing bezel, based on the concept of the pilot's watches from the 40's -- but, perhaps supplemented to include a more useful version, like the bezel currently found on the Superocean Heritage models?

OK, well, that exhausts my flight of fancy for now. Guess we'll be learning more soon...

_________________
Cheers,
Jim

28th

and the rotating bezel w/ the triangular marker was used on pilot chronographs too, Breitling and others - best known example might be the original Breguet Type XX

here's the Breitling Huit ref. 767 from the 1946 catalog:

out of the box he says

_________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Breitling and Boats. The rest I wasted" - mostly Elmore Leonard