Breitling Super Chronomat B01

I have owned a Navitimer, Classic AVI, Premier, Top Time, and a Superocean. It was about time for me to get an Emergency or a Chronomat. The Emergency (Ref. E76325221B1E1) is an extremely cool watch but it sits at a gigantic 51mm. Hard to pull off unless you have the wrists for it. I also looked high and low for an unworn Super Chronomat 4-year Calendar (Ref. I19320251B1S1) without any luck. So the next best thing for now was the Super Chronomat B01 in two-tone. I usually don't follow the crowd, but gold and steel seems to be back in style. This is only my second two-tone watch, the first being a Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronometer.

Brand and history

Breitling was founded in 1884 by Leon Breitling in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. The company built its reputation on chronographs and instrument watches for aviation. The Chronomat name first appeared in 1941 as a portmanteau of "chronographe" and "mathematique," referring to a chronograph with a logarithmic slide rule bezel for in-flight calculations. That original concept eventually migrated to the Navitimer line when it launched in 1952.

The modern Chronomat traces to 1983, when Ernest Schneider developed a watch in cooperation with Italy's Frecce Tricolori aerobatic squadron. Schneider had acquired Breitling from Willy Breitling in 1979 and shut the company down for a major retooling. The Frecce Tricolori chronograph was presented to the Italian pilots in 1983 and the public Chronomat launched in 1984, timed to Breitling's centenary. Launching a chunky mechanical chronograph during the quartz crisis was a gamble. It paid off.

The design elements that defined the 1984 Chronomat were the rider tabs on the rotating bezel and the Rouleaux bracelet. The rider tabs served a practical purpose. Pilots in the Frecce Tricolori were cracking their sapphire crystals on canopy frames when exiting the cockpit. The raised tabs offered protection. They also made the bezel easier to grip with flight gloves at altitude, where fine motor control degrades. The tabs at 15 and 45 could be unscrewed and swapped to switch between count-up and countdown functions, useful for both flight timing and regatta starts.

The Chronomat became the first Breitling to house the in-house Caliber B01 when it launched in 2009. Under CEO Georges Kern, who took over in 2017 after the Schneider family sold the company, the Chronomat was redesigned in 2020 with a return to the 1984 design codes. The Rouleaux bracelet, which had been discontinued in 1996, came back. The Super Chronomat followed in 2021 as the bigger, bolder variant, adding ceramic inserts on the bezel, pushers, and crown for the first time in the collection's history.

Case and dimensions

The Super Chronomat B01 44 is not a subtle watch. It measures 44mm wide and 14.45mm thick with a lug width of 22mm. In two-tone, with the 18k red gold bezel, crown guards, and pusher accents paired with a brushed and polished stainless steel case, it has some weight to it. This reference comes in at a pretty top heavy 236 grams. But on the rubber strap it wears snug enough that it stays put on the wrist rather than sliding around.

The case is water resistant to 200 meters with a screw-locked crown (two gaskets) and screw-down pushers. The bezel is unidirectional and ratcheted at 120 clicks with a black ceramic insert. It's a great tactile click. The rider tabs sit at 12, 3, 6, and 9. The ceramic extends to the chronograph pushers and the crown, which gives the watch a visual consistency in gloss black against the gold and steel. The caseback is screwed down with a sapphire exhibition window showing the movement.

One note on price. I opted for the rubber strap over the Rouleaux bracelet. Part of that was aesthetics. I like how the Chronomat looks on rubber. The other part was the $3,500 price difference, because the bracelet version is also gold and steel.

The dial

The dial is black with rose gold-tone applied baton hour markers and matching hands. Super-LumiNova on the hands and markers. Three sub-dials sit at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock: a 30-minute counter, a 12-hour counter with integrated date window, and a running seconds register. A red central chronograph hand is the only splash of color on the dial. The outer flange carries a tachymeter scale.

One of my favorite color combinations is gold and black and the proportions are right on this watch. The black and gold contrast is clean and the red chronograph hand breaks it up just enough to keep it visually interesting without making the dial feel busy. May be a little flashy for a daily, but it is a watch with real depth that will grab people's attention.

The movement

The Caliber B01 is Breitling's flagship in-house movement, introduced in April 2009 after five years of development at Breitling Chronometrie in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It is a self-winding chronograph with a column wheel and vertical clutch. The vertical clutch eliminates the hand-jumping you sometimes see when starting a chronograph on cheaper cam-lever systems. The modular design means the entire chronograph mechanism can be removed as a single block for servicing, separate from the base movement.

Specs: 30mm diameter, 7.2mm thick, 346 components, 47 jewels, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), approximately 70 hours of power reserve from a single barrel. It has an instantaneous date change at midnight, Kif shock absorbers (including on the escape wheel), and a Glucydur balance. COSC certified, which guarantees accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day.

There is an interesting footnote to the B01. Since 2017, Breitling has supplied a modified version to Tudor as the Caliber MT5813, used in the Black Bay Chrono. In return, Tudor supplies Breitling with the MT5612-based caliber, which Breitling uses as the B20 in the Superocean Heritage line. The B01 also reportedly shares engineering DNA with the Rolex Caliber 4130, as several of the same engineers are said to have worked on both movements. In context, the B01 competes well at its price point, though its COSC certification (-4/+6 seconds/day) sits below Omega's METAS Master Chronometer standard (-0/+5 seconds/day) and Rolex's Superlative Chronometer rating (-2/+2 seconds/day).

On the wrist

At 44mm and 14.45mm thick, this watch has presence. There is no pretending it is anything other than a large chronograph. On the Rouleaux-inspired rubber strap, it wears more comfortably than the numbers suggest. The strap mimics the round-link pattern of the metal Rouleaux bracelet and keeps the watch from feeling like dead weight on the wrist, despite the heft.

The black and gold color combination works. It has enough contrast to look intentional without crossing into gaudy territory. The ceramic accents on the bezel, pushers, and crown tie the design together and give it a more cohesive look than if those elements were left in bare metal. It is a visually interesting watch with real depth to the dial. Whether it works as a daily depends on your tolerance for attention. This is not a watch that blends in.

Final thoughts

The Super Chronomat B01 44 in two-tone is the boldest expression in the current Chronomat lineup. It is a big watch with a proven movement and solid build quality, backed by a 5-year warranty. The B01 has been in production since 2009 and powers watches across Breitling's catalog and Tudor's. It is a known quantity at this point. The Chronomat's design lineage goes back to 1984 and the Frecce Tricolori partnership, and the Super Chronomat adds ceramic elements and a sportier edge to that foundation. At $12,800 retail on rubber, it sits in competitive territory against other in-house chronographs from Omega and Tudor, though neither of those brands offers this particular combination of gold, ceramic, and mechanical chronograph at this size.

I would have preferred the 4-year Calendar variant, but that search continues. For now, the Super Chronomat B01 fills the Chronomat-shaped gap in my Breitling lineup.

{ "title": "Breitling Super Chronomat B01 44", "score": 3.9, "recommend": true, "ratings": { "Movement": 4.5, "Case": 3.5, "Dial": 4.5, "On the wrist": 3.5, "Value": 3.5 }, "pros": [ "Proven in house B01 movement with 70 hour power reserve", "Black and gold color combination with good proportions", "Ceramic accents on bezel, pushers, and crown", "Sapphire exhibition caseback showing the movement", "200m water resistance with screw down crown and pushers" ], "cons": [ "14.45mm thick and 236 grams, top heavy", "May be too flashy for daily wear", "$3,500 upcharge for the gold and steel Rouleaux bracelet", "COSC accuracy standard trails Omega METAS and Rolex Superlative certifications" ] }