Last week Breitling unveiled the Premier, a whole new collection of elegant, vintage-inspired watches, at an event in London. But it wasn’t the only story to be had: here are five things we learned about Breitling’s future

By Chris Hall

Vintage Cues
The Premier was originally launched in 1943, but you don’t need to be a total watch nerd to realise that the models we’re seeing now bear little resemblance to chronographs of the 1940s. Instead, designer Guy Bove has drawn more heavily from the Top Time models of the late 1960s and early 70s.

Not a bad call by any means – it’s a lot more in-keeping with what’s selling well at the moment, and the watches of the 40s were so much smaller that bringing that look back in a modern sized case would inevitably be a challenge. What we did hear is that Breitling plans to introduce more watches that are directly linked to specific vintage references, including some hand-wound models.  Limited Editions
Relative to the rest of the major players in its price bracket, Breitling has probably been somewhat conservative with the production of limited edition pieces. In an unprecedented step, it revealed a watch that will be officially launched next year, a version of the Premier that pays tribute to a group of WW2 American pilots in the Chinese airforce called the Flying Tigers (so named for the nosecone decorations of their Curtiss P-40 Warthogs). There will be two watches, a B01 model and a B13...