Stories

Breitling’s Emergency watch is a creation of superlatives: in technological advancement (the first wristwatch with a built-in emergency beacon); in development (10 years before a single watch went on sale); and in resources ($7 million and untold hours).  

The development project had one aim: to pair a reliable wristwatch with an Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) that could guide rescuers to a downed pilot or castaway anywhere on the planet.  

The idea allegedly came out of a meeting in the 1980s between Breitling’s then owner Ernest Schneider and a NATO officer who asked if an ELT could be made small enough to be worn—like a wristwatch. Schneider, a pilot and electronic communications engineer with a long career in the Swiss military and years of experience producing quartz watches, was uniquely qualified for the job. While he eagerly took up the challenge, he didn’t quite know yet what he was getting himself into.  

Nearly a decade of development and at least two doomed prototypes later, the new watch was announced to the press in 1995. Even then, it couldn’t be sold until May 1996 when Swiss communications regulators first approved its use. Austria, Germany, and the UK approved its use, but as late as July 1999, Breitling’s lawyers were still trying to get approval from the US. 

Federal regulators needed assurance that the Emergency was designed for pilots in life-or-death situations, not simply for “hikers and campers who had lost their way.” The words, “The Emergency is intended for use in connection with aviation,” are underlined in legal submissions, though the first lives it saved were at sea.  

While negotiations continued, an armed forces-designated Emergency was released, transmitting on the 243 MHz distress frequency used by NATO military aircraft, fulfilling the dream of the conversation that kicked off Schneider’s efforts. 

The FCC finally granted permission to sell the watch in the US in the year 2000. Its success was followed by the complex satellite-enabled dual frequency Emergency II in 2014, which overcame even higher technical and regulatory hurdles. With thousands of the Emergency sold since, it’s still out there saving lives.