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Breitling is known for large case sizes, all watches being COSC-certified, and recently poaching Georges Kern from Richemont. Their recently announced limited-edition version of the Breitling Chronoliner B04 watch with a red gold case fits right in with the blingier, showier side of Breitling. With chronograph and GMT complications, the B04 is touted by Breitling as the “flight captain’s chronograph.”
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As a note, given development and production timelines, this watch is very likely to have been kick-started much before Georges Kern’s tenure at the helm began. So I don’t think it would be fair to draw any comparisons or conclusions (good or bad), about Breitling’s future direction based on this one watch.
The Chronoliner B04 was first launched with a steel case earlier this year and is a successor to the vintage 765 AVI and 765 Co-Pilot. As a “flight-captain’s chronograph,” the Chronoliner B04 – like its predecessors – is intended to be a tool watch first and foremost, and this is one reason many Breitling watches tend to be large.
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In this case, the Breitling Chronoliner B04 is 46mm by 16.85mm, so you can expect your arm to have quite a workout given how dense gold tends to be. While I’m not a fan of big watches, I did find the color scheme of the original steel B04 appealing. The red-gold/blue color scheme, however, is even better – if ostentatious. The bezel, like most modern tool watches, is ceramic and, as expected from a GMT pilot’s watch, bi-directional.
The watch has a screw-down caseback, which I believe is individually numbered and while the crown is not screw-down, it is double-gasketed and the chronograph pushers are simple and mushroom-shaped. The watch is rated at 100m of water resistance – no surprises given that it is meant to be a tool watch.
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The dial layout, remains the same from the steel Chronoliner B04, but the hands and applied logo are now in red gold. The watch has a three-register chronograph layout, complete with the loathsome date indicator at 4:30. Thanks to the large case size, Breitling has been able to print the 24-hour indicator for the GMT complication on the dial itself and not on the rehaut like we sometimes see in sub-40mm watches. This helps significantly with legibility. As much as I hate 4:30 date windows, I can sympathize with the lack of options given how many functions you have to display and the need for form to follow function and not the other way around.
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The Breitling Chronoliner B04 is powered by the in-house caliber B04. It offers 70 hours of power reserve and is, naturally, COSC-certified like every other Breitling watch. At first glance, I can see a lot of appealing aspects in the Chronoliner B04, but there’s also enough to make me stop and think twice, if not thrice. With the case of the red-gold Chronoliner B04, sticker shock can be added to that. The Breitling Chronoliner B04 in red-gold is limited to 250 pieces and ships on a rubber strap for a price of $32,545. This is a hefty premium over the steel sibling, which actually had a smaller run of 100 watches. breitling.com