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A luxury watch is much more than a device used to tell the time. It is a personal decoration; a bodily adornment intended to make the wearer nicer to look at or used to project a message or level of status. This means you could look at a luxury watch more as a piece of jewellery that happens to tell the time than a practical tool of any real worth. In most cases, however, you would be wrong.Just because they're pretty does not mean that luxury watches are not also fantastic examples of engineering and mechanical ingenuity. Swiss watchmakers Breitling, for example, mainly design watches with the functionality, aesthetics and ergonomic considerations pointed firmly towards their intended use in the aviation industry. This isn't just a marketing gimmick, as accurate time keeping and measurement is vital for correct navigation while flying, especially when you consider that the fastest military jet can travel more than 6 miles in a mere ten seconds. This dedication to excellence has meant Breitling watches have been the chronograph of choice for pilots, navigators and other air crew, both civilian and commercial, for decades, and that wouldn't be the case unless their movements were up to the task.
In more recent times, the Breitling Emergency range has offered an integrated emergency distress beacon, broadcasting an SOS signal on the international emergency radio frequency which rescuers can use to triangulate the watch's position. Dismissed as yet another gimmick by many on release, this very distress signal saved the lives of two British airmen following a crash in the Antarctic, by allowing a Chilean search and rescue aircraft to locate their lifeboat.
Obviously, you're unlikely to need split second timing or emergency evacuation while grocery shopping, no matter how busy Tesco's might get on a Saturday morning, but you cannot help but appreciate the technical expertise involved in these watches, and that is exactly why Breitling continues to endure as a luxury brand today. |
