By Nancy Olson
Breitling’s Ref. 765 AVI pilot’s watch, introduced in 1953 and known as the “Co-Pilot,” is the inspiration for the just-introduced Super AVI watch collection, which reinterprets four vintage aircraft celebrating aviation history.
The honored legendary planes are the North American Aviation P-51 Mustang, the Vought F4U Corsair, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and the de Havilland Mosquito.
And each new watch is unique in its own way.
The Breitling Super AVI P-51 Mustang—named for the eponymous fighter/bomber that was a relative latecomer to the Pacific Theater—comes in two variations: with a stainless steel case with a black dial and brown leather strap, and a red-gold version with an anthracite dial and a black leather strap. The latter is exclusive to Breitling boutiques or online at Breitling.com.
The Breitling Super AVI Tribute to Vought F4U Corsair has a blue dial, tone-on-tone counters and a black leather strap, and it is designed in honor of the naval aircraft, which was the first single-engine fighter to crack the 400 mph mark.
The Breitling Super AVI Curtiss Warhawk is set with a military-green dial, white contrasting chronograph counters, and red accents. Its coloration is a nod to its namesake’s famous shark-mouth nose art.
Finally, the Breitling Super AVI Mosquito has a black ceramic bezel—the only one among the new collection with this distinction—and a black dial with white counters. Its red and orange details allude to the markings on the plane, nicknamed the “Wooden Wonder.”
These new Breitling pilot’s watches, introduced just a few weeks ago in Dallas, feature 46mm cases with bi-directional ratcheted bezels and oversized crowns. The red-tipped GMT hands, in collusion with the 24-hour markings on the inner bezels, track a second time zone. The large Arabic numerals on the dials and bezels and Super Luminova-accented numerals, indexes, and hands provide optimal legibility.
Inside, the self-winding COSC-certified Caliber B04 drives the hours, minutes, seconds, date, and second time zone. This column-wheel chronograph movement with vertical clutch offers an impressive seventy hours of power reserve.
The leather watchstraps are lined in Breitling yellow and the case backs of the watches are decorated with renderings of the respective planes.
Prices: $23,650 (red gold Mustang), $10,100 (steel Mustang), $10,250 (steel Mosquito), $10,100 (steel Corsair) and $10,100 (steel Curtiss Warhawk).
The watch’s steel bezel also offers a black ceramic ring. Like its limited edition counterpart, this model is available with a stainless steel bracelet ($3,190), a black rubber strap ($2,990) or a flexible fabric strap ($2,990).
