Chronomat

The Chronomat is born in 1983-84 from an idea of then-president Ernest Schneider, who tasks the design team with creating a chronograph intended for the Frecce Tricolori, the aerobatic display team of the Italian Air Force: it had to be a watch elegant enough to be worn off duty too, but sturdy enough to withstand the stresses of a military jet cockpit. Officially presented in 1984, the brand's centenary year, the model immediately becomes a recognizable stylistic manifesto thanks to two distinctive elements: the "Rouleaux" bracelet with cylindrical links and the bezel with grooved inserts ("rider tabs") positioned at 15, 30 and 45 minutes, originally designed to be operated even while wearing flight gloves and to protect the crystal from impacts in the cockpit.

The Chronomat's launch also represents a bold commercial bet: offering a complex mechanical chronograph at a time when the entire Swiss watch industry was still shaken by the quartz crisis. The bet pays off, and the model quickly wins over a cross-category audience ranging from athletes to businessmen, establishing itself as one of the symbol watches of Swiss mechanical watchmaking's comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, well beyond the aeronautical perimeter from which it was born.

In 2009 the line is equipped with the Breitling 01 manufacture calibre, an automatic chronograph entirely developed in-house, which consolidates its status as a flagship product. In 2020 the collection undergoes a major restyling that simplifies its proportions and firmly reintroduces the Rouleaux bracelet as the central element of its visual identity, while special editions dedicated to aerobatic display teams such as the Italian Frecce Tricolori and the British Red Arrows continue to explicitly recall the model's military origins.