The story
Breitling’s iconic pilot’s chronograph—fit for space travel. By the early 1960s, Breitling’s Navitimer, with its circular slide rule for performing in-flight calculations, had become the undisputed pilots’ watch. But in the era of the Space Race, another competition was quietly underway, this time between watchmakers vying to be the first on astronauts’ wrists. Breitling showed its chops in the air once again, officially becoming the first Swiss wrist-worn chronograph in space on May 24th, 1962, when Scott Carpenter blasted off in the Mercury-Atlas 7 spacecraft wearing the Navitimer Cosmonaute. The watch was his personal request, a variation on the iconic Navitimer with the addition of a 24-hour dial to distinguish day from night in orbit. Mercury-Atlas 7 circled the earth three times before it splashed down in the Atlantic, making aeronautic—and watchmaking—history. Our Cosmonaute tribute, limited to 250 pieces, modernizes the aesthetics of the original with a green dial and 18 k red gold case. And this time, the main modification isn’t for zero-g but for everyday life: a self-winding chronograph movement, the Breitling manufacture caliber B12. As a further tribute, the caseback is engraved with Carpenter’s mission date, the limitation to 250 pieces and the phrase “First Swiss wristwatch in space.”
