In 1915 Breitling introduced a chronograph with the monopusher located at 2 o’clock. A natural position for the pointer finger to reside when a chronograph is being operated. The century after this watch showed indeed a lot of chronographs where the start/stop-pusher was indeed located at two o’clock but in a touch of irony, most monopusher chronographs where created with a crown doubling as pusher. Breitling brings back this blast from the past in the Transocean Chronograph 1915.

The 1915 is a Breitling as I like them best; that simple, functional styling, that made Breitling the favorite watch of aviators, often in a time when flying was not such a common means of transportation as it is today. The watch doesn’t shout that it is a Breitling, and that makes it perhaps even more precious.

But although the Transocean Chronograph 1915 might make you meander through the past, the watch is very modern. Fitted with a convex sapphire crystal, fitted with an anti glare coating on both sides, the 1915 can more then handle every day life in the 21st century. With a diameter of 43mm it also fits right in the most popular size bracket for chronographs these days. But there is more; the Transocean Chronograph 1915 is fitted with manufacture caliber B14. This mechanical, hand wound movement had a power reserve of no less than 70 hours, but movement connoisseurs are probably even more impressed by the patent pending, double column-wheel system that the watch is fitted with. Even that is a reference to the past in itself, when Breitling was one of the leading chronograph manufactures, a position it seems the brand is working hard towards to regain.

Breitling will only make 1,915 Transocean Chronograph 1915’s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those went fast.

Martin Green
Eclectic taste in Haute Horlogerie, passion for diamond set watches, loves the classics

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