After 80 Years the Breitling Premier Chronograph Makes its Return

By Gabriel Pessoa March 21, 2023

Breitling is reintroducing the watch which took the chronograph from a tool watch to a style statement – the Breitling Premier.

Breitling Premier B01 Chronograph 42 Collection

Photo Credit: Breitling

Breitling’s reintroduction of their iconic Premier Chronograph offers six new models, updated with a heritage-inspired design and equipped with the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01.

For many, Breitling’s chronographs embody tool watches that met the functional needs of wartime in the ’40s. Pair this with Willy Breitling’s growing reputation for creating excellent aircraft instrumentation, it would be fair to connect the Breitling company with those trying times. However, the third-generation Breitling founder also dreamt of a time after the war, when utility would give way to unbridled optimism. With that future in mind, he designed a series of elegant chronographs and assigned them the best materials, the best finishings and the best calibers. He called his new line the Premier.

Willy’s dream of seeing the functional chronograph presented in an undeniably elegant and infinitely wearable context was revived in 2021, when Breitling reintroduced the Premier Heritage chronograph collection. Today, the Swiss watchmaker adds six new references to the Premier assortment, all of them powered by the self-winding Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01.

Photo Credit: Breitling

“We are committed to preserving Willy Breitling’s bold vision of combining the precision of a professional tool watch with the sophistication of a modern dress watch,” says Breitling CEO Georges Kern. “The Premier embodied the hopeful energy that emerged in the postwar era, and we are proud to continue that tradition with a modern-retro version for our times.”

Breitling’s specialty has always been the chronograph, and each of the brand’s three founding fathers had a role in shaping it. From the moment he started his business in 1884, Leon Breitling put his expertise into perfecting the pocket-watch timekeeper. His son Gaston introduced the first wrist-worn models that included an independent pusher at 2 o’clock. And his grandson Willy added the second pusher at 4 o’clock — establishing the form of the modern chronograph that is used across all of watchmaking today. Willy would then go on to take the family vision one step further, giving the chronograph style as well as function.

The new Premier B01 Chronograph 42 assortment also lives up to Willy Breitling’s stringent technical standards. The six new models are powered by the self-winding Breitling Caliber 01. First released in 2009, it is one of the most highly-regarded chronograph movements in the industry. As with all of Breitling’s mechanical calibers, each one has achieved the rigorous COSC certification for accuracy within -4 and +6 seconds per day.

Photo Credit: Breitling

The latest iteration of the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01 found in the new Premier chronograph was redesigned in 2022 and features a trimmer profile and more compact oscillating weight that can be admired through the transparent sapphire-crystal caseback. The movement comes with a five-year warranty and provides an approximate 70-hour power reserve. In keeping with Willy’s desire to marry utility with elegance, the Premier now comes with a 100 m (10 bar) water resistance.

To create the design of the new Premier, Breitling preserved distinctive vintage-Premier design details, including the smooth fixed bezel, twin-register dial, streamlined rectangular pushers, and applied Arabic numerals. At 42 mm, the case diameter is slightly larger than the 40 mm found on the existing B09 (manual-wind) models. The tone-on-tone subdials with chronograph minutes at 3 o’clock and running seconds at 9 o’clock lend a polished style, while new dial shades in salmon, blue, green, black, and cream add a contemporary twist to the stainless-steel models. A further variation in 18K red gold features a classic cream dial. The watches come on a choice of classic alligator leather strap or sleek 7-row metal bracelet.