We have come full circle – a few weeks back we started our journey through time with the 2021 Breitling Premier and now we reached the introduction of the first Breitling Premier in 1943. In 1940s as well as in the 2020s this collection is the embodiment of dress casual. Classy pieces that show that the chronograph is not a sports-only complication, it is “everyday elegance”
The Breitling replica watches UK by the design language perfectly completes the line-up of one of the most chronograph-heavy brands of the last century. You see, not every chronograph is built equally.
Purpose and style mix and many different shades of this complication emerge. From the military/aeronautical example over the sporty pieces for young professionals all the way to the dressiest executions there is a Breitling chronograph for every niche. It is a versatile complication that an entire brand can built its heritage around to then append other line-ups like a diver collection or some time-only dress best replica Breitling watches.
Putting the classic Breitling watches next to each other we see that almost each one of them is designed for a certain epoch. The Chronomat is the more modern favorite, while the TopTime peaks in the 60s/70s and the famous SuperOcean diver has its time around 1960.
But potentially most interestingly, both Premier and Navitimer – two pieces that couldn’t be more different in appearance, concept and vibe – share a very similar design age. So how can that be? Looking at the maximum Heritage Score we see that both peak in the early 1940s, both represent the typical mid-century chronograph replica watches. Why does that make sense?
WWII is ravaging Europe and the world is split in two courses of life – the trenches and the home front. Two sceneries that call for very distinct looks and purposefully designed timepieces. On the one end of the spectrum, the Navitimer precursors were utilized as successful “war-tools” for the Allied Forces. On the other end, Willy Breitling introduced the Premier line as a diversion from the battlefield. To counter the horrors of war the Premier was a way to ease people’s minds by putting the focus on the beautiful things in life.
That is the dichotomy of the watch market in the early 1940s – military versus normality. And we can actually capture these trends with our analyses. Navitimer and Premier represent the same time even though conceptualized almost ten years apart and for completely opposite purposes. Moreover, that is also the reason those two copy Breitling watches for sale are clustered so close together. It is not a bug, it’s a feature.
There we go, we did it! Putting all the pieces together we can clearly see that design and heritage of a brand can definitely be captured with such an analysis. It is a proof-of-principle what we can learn about the world of vintage fake watches when we apply quantitative methods. And I believe there should be more of it.
But what we shall not forget is that heritage might be quantifiable, but the feeling you have when putting your favorite top clone Breitling watches to your wrist is not. This is why every dot in each of these plots matters. It has its own story to tell and its own unique experiences to share.