Breitling’s modern-retro run has produced some of the most convincing Navitimers in decades, with proportions and dials closer to the 1960s originals than anything the brand made in the 2000s, and then sold most of them in limited numbers. The Cosmonaute, the 24-hour Navitimer that Scott Carpenter wore into orbit in 1962, has only ever resurfaced as anniversary pieces: a 362-piece platinum bezel edition in 2022, the meteorite dialled Artemis II earlier this year. The hand-wound B09 calibre has had the same treatment, most recently in September’s 500-piece Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 Miles Davis. From 22 October the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute and the Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 join the core collection, complete with a hand-wound movement, 41mm case, and wearing the 1960s Twin Jet logo in gold.
That is the news, more than any single spec. Breitling says this is the first time in its modern history that either watch has been sold outside a commemoration or limited run, and for the Cosmonaute in particular it changes what the watch is: a 24-hour Navitimer you can walk into a boutique and buy, rather than one you watch sell out. Good examples of the original Reference 809 were trading around £5,000 when we last looked, which is surprisingly affordable given its place in the Venn diagram of watches & space.
Breitling Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute
Let’s look at the Cosmonaute first, because it is the odder and, to my mind, the better of the two. The hour hand makes one lap of the dial a day against an Arabic 24-hour track, which was the whole point in 1962: Carpenter needed to tell morning from evening with a sunrise every 90 minutes, and the result became the first Swiss wristwatch in space. The modern version keeps the black dial and white reverse-panda counters and tucks the date into the subdial at 6 o’clock, colour matched so it doesn’t break the symmetry. Underneath is the manufacture calibre B02, a hand-wound column-wheel chronograph with a vertical clutch, 273 components and a 70-hour reserve, which Breitling currently doesn’t use anywhere else.
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Breitling Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41
The B09 Chronograph 41 is the straight Navitimer done the old way. No date, a hand-wound column-wheel B09 with the same architecture minus the 24-hour gearing (244 components against 273), and a choice of black or blue reverse-panda dials with a white rehaut and subdials. Breitling pitches it at the 1960s Navitimer worn by Jim Clark and Graham Hill, racing drivers who also flew and found the slide rule as useful on the track as in the air. The brand says dropping the date and the rotor gives it a slimmer profile than the automatic B01 Chronograph 41, though the spec sheet puts both new models at 13mm, so the difference is modest rather than dramatic.
Both share a 41mm steel case, 13mm thick and 47.09mm lug to lug, with the bidirectional slide-rule bezel, a cambered sapphire coated on both sides, a sapphire display caseback and a non-screw-down crown. Water resistance is 30m, so keep it away from the pool; this is a cockpit instrument and Breitling has never pretended otherwise. Both calibres are COSC certified, run at 4Hz and give 70 hours, which on a hand-wound chronograph means a wind every three days rather than every morning, unless you’re using the chronograph to excess. The Twin Jet logo, used by Breitling since 1957 and on Navitimer dials from 1965, is picked out in gold on both.
Straps are a brown gradient calf with folding clasp on the Cosmonaute and the black B09, a blue gradient calf on the blue B09, or the seven-row steel bracelet with alternating satin and polished links on any of them. The bracelet is the one I’d take on the B09, where it leans into the Clark and Hill era; the Cosmonaute belongs on leather, as it was on Carpenter’s wrist.
Prices put the pair where you would expect. The Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 is £6,750 (approx. $9,030) on strap or £7,150 (approx. $9,560) on the bracelet, which undercuts September’s limited Miles Davis version by £600 and £700 for the same calibre in a plainer dial. The Cosmonaute is £7,950 (approx. $10,630) on leather and £8,150 (approx. $10,900) on the bracelet, the premium being for a calibre that appears in nothing else Breitling makes. Of the two, the Cosmonaute is the one to have. A 24-hour dial is a real oddity in a modern catalogue, the history behind it is genuine rather than marketing, and after a decade of watching it appear and vanish, being able to simply buy one is the best thing Breitling has done for the Navitimer in years.
Price and Specs:
More details at Breitling.
