Explore 140 years of Breitling watches at this Chennai exhibition

The Breitling Heritage Exhibition
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Under the glow of expertly preserved dials and finely aged bezels, time tells more than just the hours at Time Capsule: The Breitling Heritage Exhibition. The travelling exhibition has made its way to Chennai, showcasing horological evolution through a collection of vintage timepieces. 

This travelling showcase is not just about watches; it is a rare glimpse into the mechanics of time itself — how it has been measured, worn, and redefined. As the Swiss luxury watchmaker marks 140 years, Gianfranco Gentile, heritage director, Breitling, reflects on the legacy behind some of the pieces and stories they carry across decades. “I started the heritage department in 2023, and the team and I decided to build a concrete calendar of activities to help the brand celebrate this milestone,” he says. 

On its 140th anniversary, Breitling launched three limited edition timepieces with the new in-house movement, the Caliber B19, which is a chronograph equipped with a perpetual calendar, a book titled ‘140 Years in 140 Stories’, detailing the timeline and history of the brand, and also opened a pop-up museum in Zurich. “We wanted to bring the brand to the world, and that’s why along with the pop-up museum, we developed this exhibition that has travelled to 30 countries and over 60 cities, and has now reached India,” he says, adding that four near-identical sets of vintage watches were designed to be shipped to different continents at the same time to tackle logistical issues of the travelling aspect. Each set features a series of 17 Breitling watches that represent key moments of the brand’s heritage.

Breitling plays a significant and multi-faceted role in timekeeping, encompassing all sides of watchmaking history. However, it remains best known to the public as an aviation instrument. “But this is just one slice of a long history. There is more to the brand, and we wanted to bring it all together,” says Gianfranco. 

Some iconic timepieces on display include the Navitimer, made in 1952, which was made for pilots; the Gaston Breitling Monopusher, made in 1915, which was the first to separate the chronograph functions from the crown; and the rare Chronomat, made in 1942, which was dubbed the world’s first smartwatch. “This watch allowed people to tell the time, measure some specific intervals of time, but at the same time, operate complicated arithmetic and logarithmic calculations just by turning the bezels on their wrist,” says Gianfranco. 

These rare vintage watches were prepped and conserved before being shipped to their respective destinations in protective cases. “We treat heritage watches as we would a collection of famous paintings, sculptures, or works of art. So we are as conservative as possible. We don’t repaint a Mona Lisa because it is fading. We dust and restore while keeping it in its original form. In watch making, we do the exact same thing. We try not to replace hands, repaint dials, or relume numbers because a watch is a witness of its life and time, and you have to be able to see the time that has passed by it,” he says. 

Each watch on display has a QR code, which, when scanned, will provide a detailed history of that particular timepiece. Visitors will be able to scan, read, and watch corresponding videos for each timepiece on display as they make their way through the history of the brand.

Time Capsule: The Breitling Heritage Exhibition is on display at the Breitling Boutique in Palladium Mall, Velachery till March 13.