Thursday 31 January 2013

Breitling Brings Back A Cosmonaute

First In Watches brings you the new limited edition Breitling Cosmonaute. 1,000 pieces of this watch will be made to commemorate Breitling’s 125th anniversary. As part of this same year-long celebration by Breitling, we saw earlier this year the limited edition Breitling Navitimer, but this watch is not nearly as cool as the Cosmonaute. One thing I  like about the Breitling Cosmonaute is that it indicates the daily 24 hours in a single sweep of the dial. What’s so special about that you might ask? Well, “given the extremely relative nature of day and night in space, this configuration prevents possible confusion between midday and midnight,” says Breitling. Can’t really argue with the that, I suppose – after all, do you really want to be late for your return flight to Earth?
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Historically speaking, in 1962 the space race was well under way, and Breitling, then already a supplier to civilian and military aviation, took on the challenge of a new watch based on the its Navitimer chronograph – the resulting watch was the Cosmonaute. On May 24th 1962, the astronaut Scott Carpenter tested the Breitling Cosmonaute under real-life conditions during his orbital flight aboard the Aurora 7 capsule. So there you have it – the first chronograph in space.
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All 1,000 commemorative pieces will be equipped with an original version of the 24-hour dial and fitted exclusively with the rigid perforated Air Racer bracelet. While I am not so much a fan of the Air Racer-style bracelet, I would overlook it in order to own one of these great watches from Breitling.

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