Rolex has the Submariner, Omega has the Speedmaster, Patek has the Calatrava, AP has the Royal Oak and Breitling have the Navitimer. An icon of the brand since it entered their catalogue in 1952 after a partnership with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association led to its creation. Wearing its function more visibly than just about any other watch on the planet, its slide-rule bezel made it a genuine working tool, allowing pilots to calculate average fuel consumption, airspeed, rate of climb and other things without reaching for a separate instrument. Over seventy years later, the slide rule remains and forms the basis of how the Navitimer looks, even in non-chronograph variants like the 41mm GMT variant that we have here.
Bringing that famed Navitimer formula into a 41mm case, a size Breitling introduced specifically to widen the Navitimer's appeal beyond the 43-46mm cases the collection has leaned on for much of the modern era, the ref. A32310251B1A1 strips back the Navitimer’s typical chronograph utility and gives it an independently adjustable local-hour GMT hand making it more useful for daily life. Powered by the automatic Breitling cal. 32 movement, this is a Navitimer built for someone who wants the history and the silhouette without committing to the watch's large proportions or its typical chronograph function.
