Breitling's new watch celebrates a poignant moment in its history.
The new reference fuses a chronograph and a dive watch for less than you might think.
Back in the 1950s, the thought of combining a dive watch and a chronograph seemed like an impossible task. The pushers required to make a chronograph work are a notorious weak point for water ingress, and, as such, it seemed that the two would forever be separate entities.
Not so, said Willy Breitling, who set about merging the two. With the help of casemaker Hugenin Frères, the SuperOcean ref. 807 was born, and it's that original model which has inspired the new SuperOcean Heritage B01 42 chronograph.
The design cues of the original watch are present and correct here, with spear-shaped hands, a reverse panda dial and black ceramic bezel. The original was designed to appeal to those who spent their time on the sea and on the scene, and there's a strong element of that philosophy here too.
You'll find a black sunburst dial on show here, with silver chronograph counters which offer a grayscale take on the reverse panda design. Inside, the brand's in-house Caliber 01 movement keeps things ticking over.
That's a COSC-certified column-wheel chronograph with a vertical clutch, and operates at a 4Hz beat rate. It also offers around 70 hours of power reserve, ensuring time wont stop if you do take it off the wrist. There's even 200m of water resistance on offer, which is absolutely massive in chronograph terms.
So, what's the catch? Well, it's not exactly a petite watch.
The 42mm case diameter is pretty reasonable, but a case height of 14.55mm is pretty chunky whichever way you spin it. Couple that with a lug-to-lug width of nearly 50mm and this one is going to need a pretty substantial wrist to wear it.
Still, if you can get away with it from a style perspective, you're getting one hell of a watch. A choice of rubber strap or a mesh bracelet are offered, both with a butterfly clasp.
Priced at £7,300 (approx. €8,500 / US$9,750 / AU$13,700) on the rubber strap and £7,500 (approx. €8,700 / US$10,050 / AU$14,100) for the bracelet, this offers a significant amount of watch for the cash. I've long felt that Breitling offers killer value and is significantly underrated at the moment, and this watch certainly fits that narrative.
