March 29, 2024
Side of Breitling Navitimer 01 02

Breitling Navitimer series is a remarkable for people. Since last century, Breitling Navittimer has released recognizable watches. Nowaday,s, the rose gold version become one of the popular watch.

This Breitling Navitimer 01 model with its 43mm-wide case itself has six different styles depending on the case, dial, and strap option. You can opt for this watch in a polished steel case or in this polished 18k red gold case. Each is available on strap or bracelet as well as some black or brown dial options. On top of that, you can opt for dials that use these baton-style hour markers or that have Arabic numeral options. And again, this is just the various current models for the Breitling Navitimer 01. That doesn’t includes other model families such as the Navitimer 01 46mm, Navitimer QP, Navitimer World, and Navitimer GMT – which each have their own unique elements and sub-varieties. Side of Breitling Navitimer 01  02
That means you’ll be forgiven if you’ve been eyeing a Breitling Navitimer for a while but haven’t pulled the trigger yet because you aren’t sure what version. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to tell you the best Navitimer model for you, but I will help you narrow it down based upon your needs and tastes. The first step is figuring out the size you want, as Breitling produces the Navitimer in 42mm, 43mm, 46mm, and 48mm wide cases. From there, you need to figure out whether you want an in-house made movement, or don’t mind a sourced Swiss ETA movement, and what dial as well as case material you are looking for.

As you can see, Breitling enjoys a lot of sales success with the handsome Navitimer, but your options as a consumer are truly staggering. For me, the best-looking Navitimer watches have a “panda dial,” just like this model, which tend to have a black face with contrasting white-colored subdials. This marks a key element of the “Navitimer look” that I think a lot of consumers are looking for. With that said, the Navitimer dial comes in a range of versions including face colors that are black, silver, blue, and brown.

In fact, this is the second review of a Breitling Navitimer 01 watch that we’ve published on aBlogtoWatch. Here, you can read our Max’s 2012 review of this Breitling Navitimer 01 watch in steel which talks a lot about why someone who loves watches and is an engineer would really want a Navitimer. My goal isn’t to repeat what Max said but rather to talk about the Breitling Navitimer 01 from my own perspective. In gold, the feeling of the watch does change, and I really do think this is one of the few luxury watches that you can wear in gold and still come across as practical given that in many ways the Breitling Navitimer is a non-showy luxury watch.Side of Breitling Navitimer 01  03
The purpose-driven design of the Breitling Navitimer is really its savior when it comes to not being a pretentious timepiece. Nothing about the design is about flair or presentation and understanding the history of the watch’s utility for pilots allows you to understand why the time plus chronograph and slide-rule bezel came in very hands in a pre-computer age. In the 1950s when the Breitling Navitimer was first introduced, it was a pretty big deal to have a timepiece with a built-in slide-rule calculator bezel.

There is a distinct and pronounced romance to having a complete mechanical “tool” on the wrist just as it was meant to be, complete with analog goodness and tactile pleasure. While a hand-operated chronograph mixed with a slide-rule calculator bezel on a wrist watch offers little precision value in today’s data-obsessed world, the analog versus digital nature of the information display is more akin to how our own brains perceive reality. Thus, watches like the Breitling Navitimer, along with many corresponding watches, are not defeated by their lack of modernity and obsolescence because we as people have yet to come up with something better to replace the familiar approachability of a mechanical versus electronic machine.Side of Breitling Navitimer 01
This “modest size” for a Breitling Navitimer is going to work well for most people as the proportions are just right. Make the Navitimer larger, as in the Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm, and things still look good but only if you have a very large-sized wrist to support the additional size. This isn’t the type of watch you need to inherently “wear large” for it to look good. You already have the benefit of a rather thin bezel which maximizes the visible dial size.

In my opinion, a collection like the Breitling Navitimer so epitomizes the above ideals that it has remained an important part of the watch design landscape for so long. It really isn’t about the appeal of flight and challenge of being a pilot. It is more about the calculations inherent in being a human being who takes advantage of the natural world above and beyond the limit of our own internal senses thanks to the use of tools.Breitling Navitimer 01 caseback