A long-overdue revival for the Swiss watchmaker’s most elegant line.

As Mr Willy Breitling once put it: “When a man puts on his watch, it is the unmistakable stamp of impeccable taste.”

Admittedly, the truth of that statement rather depends on the tastefulness of the watch. But chances are, back in Mr Breitling’s 1940s heyday, if you were strapping a Breitling around your wrist, you were guaranteed said “unmistakable stamp”. Throughout the inter-war period, the Swiss horloger had distinguished itself as a pioneer of the wearable “chronograph” stopwatch. When WWII came around, the RAF recruited Breitling’s “Huit” department to fit its cockpits with clocks to navigate by, and come the 1950s its slide-rule Navitimer became the watch of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association.

But while Mr Breitling clearly had a handle on horological purpose, he was also keenly aware of the era’s zeitgeist. A man of great cultural sensitivity, he intuitively knew that, in those tumultuous times, people needed a sense of normalcy; more than that, a touch of glamour.

Hollywood’s own moguls were already on the case, with some of their best work in production: Citizen Kane was released in 1941 and Casablanca won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1944. An unlikely golden age of cinema that offered a couple of hours’ respite from the headlines. Mr Breitling was certain that a fashionable watch could, in its own way, offer the same kind of pleasant distraction. Instead of utilitarian aviator chronographs, Europe’s wartime civilian population needed wristwear informed by elegance and individuality. And that’s precisely what Mr Breitling delivered, in the form of 1943’s “Premier”.

Fast forward to the Breitling of 2019, and its ambitious new CEO, Mr Georges Kern is clearly a man cut from the same cloth. As he nipped and tucked the existing portfolio straight off the blocks in July 2017, a similar opportunity became glaringly obvious. “Over the last few decades of its history,” says Mr Kern, “Breitling has essentially been positioned as a pilots’ watch brand, so a large part of its rich history has been overlooked. We are addressing that now.”

Sure enough, a mere 15 months into his tenure, Mr Kern unveiled a ground-up, fresh-of-face collection that enriches the brand’s heritage while feeling “grounded” in the literal sense. And the name of this long-overdue, more urbane revival? It is, of course, Premier.

Still featuring cockpit-ready chronographs, as per every Premier model of the 1940s, a brace of simpler Day and Date and Automatic varieties is into the mix, too. These are in keeping with the collection’s sartorial vibe, and meet the current market demand for smaller, more elegant watches. “The new Premier models allow us to reflect on our impressive past,” says Mr Kern, “but of course, they tell their own new story: their elegance, performance, and quality are everything you would expect from a contemporary Breitling watch.”

At long last, adding to Breitling’s ongoing Air and Sea sagas, Premier’s new Land scenario is cleaner, crisper and veiled with just enough nostalgia to lend gravitas. Case in point being the chronographs’ pushbutton profile: low-lying and rectangular, rather than the usual stalked “plunger” style. Less urgently functional, yes, but all the more elegant should your business meeting find itself migrating from the boardroom to the bar.

As for passing muster as that “unmistakable stamp of impeccable taste”? If Mr Breitling was around today, the new Premier would surely do so with flying (albeit civilian) colours.

**Premier B01 Chronograph 42 **

The prima Premiers, so to speak, were always going to be those powered by Breitling’s premiere mechanics: the self-winding “B01” chronograph movement, manufactured entirely beneath the brand’s La Chaux-de-Fonds factory roof since 2009. (So good that Rolex’s younger sister, Tudor is a customer.) Fitted inside the new Premier, the raw performance potential of the B01 is dialled down with a perfectly symmetrical “bicompax” layout – contrasted with the background colour to indicate its “B01” status. This model’s cobalt dial is highlighted by 30-minute and 12-hour counters in anthracite black, circumscribed by a matching “tachymeter” scale – a simple means of using measured travel time (in seconds per “unit”) to compute speed (in “units” per hour). The 42mm case could look and feel overbearing, but a clever cocktail of stepped bezel, integrated pushers and steeply angled lugs all combine to “plant” the watch low on the wrist. G-suit or suit-suit, you’re covered.

**Premier Automatic 40 **

Breaking from the chronograph-only rule of the 1940s Premier, the revived collection is taking cues from its newfound urbanity and introducing a “time-only” dress watch, down to a versatile 40mm diameter and holding all class cards with that cleaned-up Silver Surfer dial. Inside its stainless-steel case is the Breitling Caliber 37, a self-winding mechanical movement admirable through a display caseback and fine-tuned to exacting “chronometer” standards of precision – no more than four seconds lost or six seconds gained per day, having been rigorously tested for 15 days by the Swiss COSC (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres) facility. Mounted on a contrast-stitched black alligator strap, the Premier Automatic 40 is one of those “if you know, you know” pieces that’ll earn you a sage nod from your watch-collector friends.

Shop the full Breitling collection here