The Breitling Navitimer is one of the most iconic watches. It was launched in 1952 and it was created for pilots. Its predecessor was the 1942 Chronomat. The first Navitimer, the 806, soon became the official timekeeping instrument of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The Navitimer was upgraded in 1969 when they switched to the Caliber 11 movements to function fully automatic. It was in the 1990s when this model started to take off and became popular to finally reach the level of popularity it has today.
At first sight, the knockoff and the authentic Breitling Superocean Chronograph look pretty much the same, but if you take a closer look you discover a couple of differences.
There are many models available from the Navitmer collection, but Jay chose one of the Breitling replica watches I also have, the Breitling Superocean Chronograph. Here’s what he’s saying about it, along with a few comments of my own.
The black dial has a circular raised pattern, the hour and minutes markers are identical, the silver B-winged logo, the date window and lettering as well. Unfortunately, the bezel is not identical to the real one. On the authentic watch, the bezel is engraved with numerals, but the fake one has numbers only at the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. The case, winding crown and bracelet seem to be pretty much the same.
There are a lot of similarities between these watches, but they still have different feels. The Navitimer is a fully polished watch which makes it have a sportier look. The Bently is slightly more elegant, probably because of the blue dial and the leather strap. In terms of size and measurements, they are very similar. They work with Japanese Automatic movements, so there’s no difference from this point of view.