Right on the heels of the Breitling Chronomat Automatic 36 Victoria Beckham, Breitling have launched a new Chronomat B01 42 limited edition which is only available in the UK. First a member of the Spice Girls and now this, it seems like the Swiss giant is paying a lot of attention to our little Isle. The Breitling Chronomat B01 42 ref. AB01341B1B1A1 is an interesting contrast to the Beckham collection because where those were bright and colourful, this is monochrome and serious.
Starting with the case it measures 42mm in diameter, which is fairly standard size for a robust tool watch. Breitling has a strong connection to pilot’s watches and you can see that DNA here, with the oversize, knurled crown and tabbed bezel making it particularly easy to use while wearing thick leather pilot’s gloves. I like the monocolour design with tone-on-tone steel bezel and case, nicely accented by a combination of brushed and polished surfaces.
It’s the dial that’s the main focus here, understated and highly legible in a combination of black, anthracite grey and white. They’ve also kept to the same colour scheme for the date window at 6 o’clock, which really helps to build up the smart, tactical aesthetic. If you swapped the bar indexes for numerals, you could almost imagine that you’re looking at a modern interpretation of a Dirty Dozen watch – which would have been even more thematically appropriate for a UK Limited Edition Chronomat considering the Dirty Dozen were commissioned by the MoD.
Housed inside the watch is the Breitling B01 automatic chronograph movement. One of their flagship column wheel chronograph movements with a nice 70-hour power reserve, COSC chronometer certification and functions that include hours, minutes, small seconds, 1/4th second chronograph, 30-minute counter and 12-hour counter.
It’s ultimately a very classy and simple release, a UK exclusive colourway of a popular model. Exclusive is also a key word here because it’s limited to just 250 pieces and is only available from UK boutiques or Breitling’s UK online store. In terms of price it’s £7,300, which is the same as the standard Chronomat B01 42 in steel in any of its various colours. If you want to stand out from the fleet of pandas and reverse pandas, this cool monochrome edition that flows through the spectrum from black to white rather than sticking to the extremes could be for you.
Price and Specs:
More details at Breitling.
