Willy or Won’t He? Breitling Just Launched Its Most Expensive Watch
Steel yourself for the £55k Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Willy Breitling
That makes branding and business sense.
Is sir in the market for classic dress watch that speaks of refinement and taste, one that been worn by the great and the good, almost entirely unchanged for a century? May we direct you towards a Cartier Tank?
Perhaps sir is a Premier League footballer with an interest in cutting-edge material science and prefers a watch that looks like it’s been beamed in from the year 3000, available in a limited run of less than 10? The waiting list at Richard Mille is now open. Or is sir after a solid investment piece, one that will grant you nods of approval in almost any social situation? Congratulations, you’re a Rolex guy.
You get the idea.
Omega and Breitling are two of the great watch brands of this decade, and any other. Their reputations are built on COSC-certified, incredibly well-made and accurate timepieces. And they do most of their business at the “affordable” end of the luxury watch market (£3,000-£8,000) making great play of their (genuine) associations as producers of all-round sport and lifestyle timepieces.
This year there must be something in the water, because both these brands have thrown us for a loop.
First Omega launched a £207 version of its classic Speedmaster in collaboration with Swatch. Then last week it launched two collectors’ pieces that cost in the region of half-a-million quid. One of them was a chiming gold stopwatch based on an Olympic Games model from 1932.
Now Breitling has announced three new tourbillion models in 18kt red gold, 18kt white gold and platinum. They start at £47,000.
A tourbillion – the visible setting on watch’s dial that houses the balance wheel, the balance spring and the escapement inside a rotating cage, and runs in constant motion – tends to be the sort of showy-off complication that you get with high, high-end watchmakers, largely because they’re so expensive and time-consuming to make. Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet and Hublot love a tourbillon – and will charge you accordingly.
It’s not quite true that more “competitively priced” watchmakers haven’t done them – Tag Carrera and Bell & Ross have, to name two, as indeed has Breitling with its B12 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Bentley, a discontinued collab with the car manufacturer from a couple of years back.
But this is something different.
The new watch, which sits in Breitling’s high-end ‘Premier’ range, comes in three versions, each named for a pioneering member of the Breitling family from back in the day.
The Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Léon Breitling comes in an 18kt red gold case with a silver dial and a brown alligator strap.
The Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Gaston Breitling comes in an 18kt white gold case with an anthracite dial and a black leather strap.
Finally, the Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Willy Breitling has a platinum ‘admirable’ blue dial and a black leather strap.
All three measure 42mm and keep the stylings of the Premier line largely intact, including the Arabic numerals and square pushers. The Léon and the Gaston are £47,000 each. The platinum Willy is £55,000. A “standard” Premier model costs £7,150. Meanhile, the current entry-level Breitling is the light and bright sport-related Endurance Pro, yours for just £2,750. And though clearly chalk and cheese and aimed at different markets, these new models now represent the most expensive watches Breitling has made commercially available, by some distance
“The Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 is the perfect expression of Breitling’s design and expertise,” CEO Georges Kern says. “In the tourbillon, you see the mechanism living at every second. It is the beating heart of the watch.”
It’s a horologically heavy release, for sure.
But what does it mean? It either points to the brand testing the water for a market with deeper pockets, which given the buoyancy of the market for very expensive timepieces, we know exists. Or it’s them expanding their already comprehensive line-up so that there really is a watch for everyone. Or else it’s some post-covid “why the hell not?” edict. You know, just for fun.
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