Breitling

Chrono-matic

2111

circa 1970

126XXXX

steel, screw-on back, 21mm. bevelled lugs, thin bezel, case 38mm. diameter

Black with white ovoid centre with two chronograph subsidiaries, baton steel hour inserts with lume end markers, outer tachy scale

white-painted matchstick hour and minute hands with luminous inserts, red chronograph hand

Automatic Calibre 11 movement signed BREITLING

Brown leather by Bulang & Son

After creating the first self-winding chronograph movement in 1969, the Breitling company invented a whole range of chronographs and named them Chrono-Matic, featuring an original and distinctive appearance following the 70s trend. Breitling launched the first wrist chronograph with a pusher at 2:00 in 1915, presented the first dual pusher wrist chronograph with pushers at 2:00 and 4:00 in 1933 and was one of the first manufacturers to recognize the need of early aviators for wrist watches incorporating such devices. In 1942 Breitling introduced the Chronomat, the worlds first Smart Watch, a chronograph with a rotating logarithmic slide rule that allowed complex calculations with the turn of your fingers. Throughout the 1930s to 50s, Breitling continued creating chronographs with different scales to suit different professions, such as tachymeters for production engineers and drivers, and pulsometers for doctors. A tachymeter scale measures how fast an object is moving. The scale can be found either on the dial or in the bezel. Most tachymeters start at 400 and end at 60, but some models can show different numbers. It's very simple to calculate the speed: just mark a point and push the start button. After the object has moved for one kilometer (or mile), push the stop button. The number indicated by the hand shows the speed of the object in km/h or mph, depending on the unit chosen.