The Navitimer became famous for its combination of chronograph and slide-rule bezel, although it wasn’t Breitlings first to combine these features it became popular and was utilized by both professional and military pilots due to it being a flight tool capable of making calculations for a flight plan and offering a range of inflight calculations. Using the Navitimer pilots could calculate fuel consumption, rates of ascent, descent, average speed or converting distances. It could even be used to determine exchange rates, useful for when the pilot reached their destination. The name “Navitimer” is a combination of the words Navigationa and Timer.
There has been much discussion about the origins of the first Navitimers and a lot of mystery surrounds them since Breitlings records are deficient and nobody seems to know for certain the full story, there is a lot of disagreement by specialists on all the subtle details. What is for sure is that after the achievement of the Chronomat, the world’s first slide rule chronograph unveiled in the early 1940′s, Breitling made a second slide rule chronograph and according to Breitling launched it somewhere between 1952 and 1954. Vintage Breitling Chronomat
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) logo can be seen on the dial of these first watches and it is believed they all had this logo. Some experts believe Breitling designed the watch and then AOPA asked for their logo to be placed on the dial wh...