The brand has just opened a boutique in Luxembourg. We met up with him to find out more about this highly successful brand. Bernard Hertoghe: The Chronomat, a watch launched in and originally designed for the pilots of the Italian Air Force aerobatics team. It is typical of Breitling, with a roller strap and a bezel with riders, as was common in the s and s. Yes, but not only. In the s, we actually developed onboard instruments.
In , we launched the Navitimer, designed for aeroplane pilots. But Breitling has always made other types of watches.
That;s true. For example, in the Superocean was launched, a watch that was water-resistant to metres. He has sought out a number of historic models and brought them up to date.
This was the case for the Premier of the s, the Top Time and the Superocean of the s. Today, we have become a generalist brand. Breitling watches are Swiss-made. But in this age of globalisation, what does that mean? We do, of course, have some bracelets, particularly leather ones, or secondary parts that come from elsewhere. We have a factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds where we make our movements. For example, we sell our Chronomat Automatic movement to Tudor and we buy its three-hand automatic movement, which we each rework in our own way.
What role does craftsmanship play in the manufacture of Breitling watches? We have a semi-industrial process, which is also linked to the volumes we produce. Our own movements are assembled by hand, but of course we also use machines. We also work with the movement from Valjoux, which we dismantle completely, before adapting it to our needs and reassembling it.
