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In an ongoing wave of vintage, the Aviator 8 reinterprets Breitling’s early pilot’s watches, rather than simply copying them. In this in-depth review of our October 2020 issue, we look at how the latest Aviator 8 model, the B01 Mosquito Chronograph, remains unchanged in modern everyday life. (Original photo by Olaf Köster).
Just as gusts of wind sometimes transition into storms, the Breitling Aviator 8 collection has undergone many changes. The collection was launched in early 2018 as the Navitimer 8 and has since transitioned to the Aviator 8, albeit without making much of a splash. The transition now appears to be complete – the new collection reflects the long history between Breitling and the aviation industry.
A Smooth Transition to the Aviator 8
The phrase “back in the cockpit” heralds the start of Georges Kern’s tenure as CEO of Breitling in 2017. His goal is to revisit and reinvent Breitling’s first steps in the aviation sector. Breitling had been producing cockpit instruments for aircraft as early as the 1930s, well before the first Navitimer with the famous flying slide rule was launched in 1952, so it was surprising that the new collection was called Navitimer (now “8”) and omitted the flying slide rule specific to that model. Instead, the Navitimer 8 is supposed to tell the story of that part of Breitling’s pilot’s watch history that existed before the Navitimer.
That’s why the Navitimer 8 features some elements from replica watches produced by Breitling in the 1930s and 1940s, such as the rotating bezel. the limited edition was released in the summer of 2018, later renamed the Navitimer Aviator 8 B01 Chronograph, which features markers and even numbers in addition to the existing directional triangle.
The deep black and contrasting colors on the dial and rotating bezel are a pilot’s watch should look.
Then came the Curtiss Warhawk, another special edition issued a year after the Navitimer 8 was launched, and finally the Aviator 8, which now represents Breitling’s early links with aviation. This change was gradual and did not cause a major stir. Although the Navitimer 8 models can still be found on the replica Breitling website (perhaps these will become collector’s items because of their short lifespan), the unique models with slide rule can be found under “Navitimer”, while the new watches are listed under “Aviator 8”. The Navitimer name on the dial has disappeared.
Our test fake watch, the Aviator 8 B01 Chronograph Mosquito, available at the end of 2019, reaches “back to the cockpit”, as defined by George Kern, returning to the style of cockpit clocks designed in the 1930s and 1940s by the White Aviation department. Founded in 1938 at Breitling (Huit means “eight” in French), this department handled aircraft cockpit clocks with an eight-day power reserve.
