Breitling kicked off its recent spate of “capsule collections” in 2019 with a series of Navitimer models paying tribute to, and bearing the classic colors of, three fondly remembered airlines associated with the so-called Golden Age of commercial aviation: Swissair, Pan Am and TWA. This year, the brand adds another legendary carrier to its fleet with the launch of the Navitimer American Airlines Edition.

The recognizable red-white-and-blue livery of American Airlines, which was founded in 1930 on the consolidation of 82 smaller carriers and today stands as the world’s largest airline by fleet size, adds a dash of retro cool to the classical dial of the Navitimer, one of the most world’s iconic pilots’ chronographs since its debut in 1952. The particular inspiration for this latest re-imagination of the Navitimer appears to be the minimalist graphics and logo forms used by American Airlines in the 1960s and 1970s.
The 43-mm stainless steel case features the Navitimer’s emblematic bidirectional circular slide-rule bezel, an innovation that allowed pilots in the ?50s to make crucial flight calculations on their watches, essentially serving as wrist-borne onboard computers in those early days of commercial flight. A curved sapphire crystal covers the three-register dial in bright blue, with contrasting white subdials for 30 chronograph minutes, 12 chronograph hours, and 60 running seconds at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, respectiv...