Breitling is a factory originating from the Bernese Jura and founded by Léon Breitling in 1884 in Saint-Imier. Specializing in technical watches, Breitling played a key role in the development of the chronograph and is among the leaders in this complication. In 1952 Breitling launched its Navitimer chronograph with a calculation rule allowing all kinds of operations related to air navigation. This watch then gained great popularity among pilots all over the world, some of which were even equipped for the Iraqi army.
Breitling with the Hamilton-Heuer-Buren consortium created the calibre 11 in 1969, one of the first automatic chronographs. Today, the many variations of Breitling chronographs are highly sought after by collectors such as the Top-Time, Rachel Welch, Navitimer and AOPA.
