hen Léon Breitling was born, in 1860, Swiss watchmaking relied on pockets of skilled workers and the image of farmers making cases, crowns and escapements to supplement their income during the harsh winter months was still very much a reality. Industrialisation had barely begun and Léon Breitling would be one of its champions.

A 1910s advertisement for Breitling’s first monopusher chronograph.

Growing up in a town where watchmaking was a way of life, Léon knew from a young age what he wanted to do and in 1884 established “Léon Breitling, Fabricant” where he focused on the production of chronographs, which he considered the tool watch par excellence.

The Breitling Duograph, advertised in Europa Star in 1944.

©Archives Europa Star

His first models were precision chronometers. Already, Léon Breitling was intent on making useful, functional and reliable instruments and this was reflected in his logo of the initials “LB” inside a column wheel. From the very beginning, chronometric excellence was central to Breitling’s DNA.

Léon Breitling’s original “column wheel” logo.

An early adopter of marketing, the brand featured its split-seconds chronograph in turn-of-the-century advertisements that boasted “chronographs and timers recording 10, 30 and 60 minutes”. And how many people know that the first speeding tickets were issued to Swiss motorists in 1907 by officers equipped with a Breitling pocket chronograph with a tachymeter scale!

This advertisement, from a 1948 edition of Europa Star, is an early example of Breitling’s marketing flair.

©Archives Europa Star

Breitling built its reputation on its expertise as a maker of chronographs. Shown here, a Europa Star article from 1953.

©Archives Europa Star

The invention, in 1915, of the independent pusher gave another boost to Breitling’s reputation. From father to son, in 1933 Léon’s twenty-year-old grandson Willy Breitling succeeded his father, Gaston, at the head of the company which he would manage until 1979. He oversaw the introduction of the now iconic Chronomat in 1942, Premier in 1943, Navitimer in 1952 and Superocean in 1957 – making the chronograph desirable beyond its tool-watch functionality.

Three iconic models: the Navitimer, the Chronomat and the Superocean (Europa Star archives, 1963).

©Archives Europa Star

A great place to work

While the days of the one-man workshop in Saint-Imier may be long gone, Léon Breitling’s “innovative, visionary and human” spirit is as strong as ever. His bust sits proudly inside the entrance to Breitling Chronométrie, greeting visitors to the brand’s manufacturing facilities in La Chaux-de-Fonds. More than 300 people are employed there, together with almost 200 staff at the headquarters in Grenchen and a further 80 in Zurich, for marketing and admin.

The entrance to Breitling Chronométrie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, opened in 2001.

The company is, it would seem, a great place to work, having been voted one of Switzerland’s “top employers” four years in a row and even ranking first in 2024.

Breitling opened its first pop-up museum in Zurich’s old town for its 140th anniversary.

Breitling has come a long way and not just in terms of production volume or the size of its workforce. The company has continued to push the envelope for precision and in 1999 declared that henceforth all its movements would be certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres. Putting this into perspective, in 2023 only 15% of Swiss watch exports were COSC-certified (source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH).

From 3,000 to 85,000 B01 calibres

With this objective in mind, in 2001 the brand opened the first building of a purpose-built manufacture, where its movements are assembled. At the same time, it embarked on the development of an in-house chronograph calibre – something of a rarity, given that chronographs are often separate modules added to a base movement. The now famous B01 calibre saw daylight in 2009; the same year the manufacture cut the ribbon on its second building. One of the first to operate without lubricant, it runs round-the-clock with just one eight-hour shift.

B01 plate blank on the drilling line.

Brass blanks are loaded into state-of-the-art modular linear transfer machines, built by Fleury SA in Biel. Some fifty machines sand, microblast, turn and cut the plates. Quality is controlled to one thousandth of a millimetre by automated probes and binocular magnifiers.

Pre-assembled plate for the B01 calibre.

Burrs are removed by high-pressure water jets (over 320 bars) but nothing replaces the trained eye (helped by binocular magnifiers) of the ébavureuses who finish the job using micro-burins, to achieve the standard of excellence required for all the components.

Assembling the regulator in the B01 calibre.

Across the production line, four giant vacuums suck up waste which is collected in bins then sold for recycling, resulting in material loss of less than one per cent. Knowing that an average ten kilos of waste are produced for every 12.5 kilos of blanks, the financial as well as environmental benefits are clear.

Loading plate blanks at the start of the production line.

Thanks to this combination of cutting-edge machine tools and optimised processes, it takes less than a month to produce a complete plate. Sound-absorbing ceiling panels reduce noise levels for employees’ comfort: just one of the measures to provide optimal working conditions that have earned Breitling a number of awards.

In 2009, 3,000 B01 calibres rolled off the single production line. In 2023, ten lines produced 85,000 movements. The manufacture is operating at full capacity, with a planned extension in the pipeline. Additionally, the brand has launched production of its own five-spoke balance wheel, debuted in the Navitimer and the Chronomat.

Over 1,000 separate controls

Of the 346 components that make up a B01 calibre, between 30 and 40 (depending on the version) are produced in-house, but every single part goes through the same controls, whether at the start or end of production. Every jewel, every screw, every wheel, every centre hole is checked. Even the hardness of the materials is tested. In total, the movement and its parts undergo over a thousand separate controls.

Also for its 140th anniversary, Breitling introduced its first perpetual calendar chronograph movement, here in the Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary.

After jewels have been fitted, the plates are transferred to the three dedicated assembly lines. An RFID tag embedded in each tray tracks each stage in assembly in real time. As the movement travels through the 38 workstations, eight of which are fully automated, bridges, wheels, barrel, escapement and other components are assembled. Exactly 1,164 calibres circulate simultaneously across the assembly lines, where they spend between five and seven days.

Assembly and inspection line.

Visual inspections are performed throughout and, at the end of the process, the movements are tested in six positions in preparation for COSC certification. If results are confirmed 24 hours later, they are fitted with dials and hands, then sent to the COSC for final tests.

At 28mm, Breitling’s latest Chronomat is the smallest ever.

Back from the COSC, these manufacture movements are manually cased and the watch heads laser-engraved with a reference number (material, model, calibre) and their individual COSC number. Power reserve, water-resistance, hand positions, overall precision, etc. are then checked over a further three days of testing.

For its 140th anniversary, Breitling pays tribute to the icons of aviation and aerospace with new Navitimer GMT and Automatic 41 models, and a limited-edition automatic Cosmonaute.

Next stop is Grenchen, where straps are fitted and these chronometer chronographs (not the same thing!) are packed in their sustainable boxes, made from upcycled plastic bottles, ready for shipping to Breitling fans worldwide. Like Léon Breitling 140 years ago, Breitling has its eye on the future.

The 140 Years in 140 Stories commemorative book.