Breitling launches new Navitimer 8 Collection
The name is inspired by the eight-day power reserve that was considered essential for onboard timekeeping instruments on planes
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At a red-carpet event at Zurich’s Hallenstadion, the Swiss watch brand, Breitling, celebrated the debut of its new Navitimer 8 collection.
Around 600 guests from the worlds of business, culture, and entertainment, as well as international media and opinion leaders, were welcomed by Breitling’s new global CEO, Georges Kern, who introduced his brand’s next chapter.
Special guests included Gregory Breitling, the son of Willy Breitling, as well as adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Inge Solheim, members of the Breitling Jet Team and the Patrouille Suisse, French actor Guillaume Canet, and British actor Richard E.Grant, among others.
Georges Kern, who was named CEO of Breitling in the summer of 2017, discussed the brand’s heritage and its direction with British author and journalist Nick Foulkes. In which Kern committed himself to taking Breitling into what he described as “a legendary future.”
Kern said: “I am very proud to have the chance to introduce the new Navitimer 8 collection here at our second major Legendary Future launch event. It pays homage both to the brand’s innovations and its accomplishments in the pioneering days of aviation and is also an indication of what lies ahead.”
Breitling launched a brand-new collection at the ceremony as a tribute to Willy Breitling and the Huit Aviation Department he founded in 1938.
The Navitimer 8 collection is an allusion to the number “eight” (huit in French), which Willy Breitling chose as a reference to the eight-day power reserve that was considered essential for onboard timekeeping instruments on planes, but not necessarily for the wrist chronographs of that era.
