“We want to fish in a bigger pond,” Breitling CEO Georges Kern announced to the assembled audience of international media at the first Breitling Summit, held October 22 at Spring Studios in London. It was a reference to Breitling’s initiative under the leadership of Kern, now in its second year, to embrace other product segments and categories beyond the aviation-centric styles for which the Swiss brand has long been renowned.
Breitling Premier Automatic Day & Date 40 with silver dial and brown alligator leather strap
Hence the centerpiece announcement of the Summit, the launch of the new Premier collection of timepieces, which takes its place alongside the venerable Chronomat family in the “Land” segment of Breitling’s four-pronged marketing strategy, with “Air” represented by the classic Navitimer and recently introduced Navitimer 8; “Sea” by the Superocean and Superocean Heritage; and the non-environment-themed “Professional” pillar by high-tech tool watches like the Emergency and the ExoSpace connected watch. Breitling Premier Chronograph 42 with blue dial and brown alligator leather strap
The Premier collection is actually a revival of an elegant gents’ model introduced by founding-family scion Willy Breitling in 1943, and represents, according to Kern, the most sublime example of Breitling watches’ evolution “from purpose to style.” Design elements that define the new c...