Breitling moves two hand-wound Navitimer chronographs it had only sold as limited editions into its catalogue: the Cosmonaute, with its 24-hour dial, and the date-free B09.
Willy Breitling developed the Navitimer in 1952 for members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the American association of pilots and aircraft owners. Its rotating bezel carries a circular slide rule that lets a pilot work out average speed, distance travelled, fuel consumption or rate of climb. About ten years later, NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter asked the brand for a version with a dial divided into 24 hours. He wore it on 24 May 1962 during the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission, circling the Earth three times aboard the Aurora 7 capsule. That watch, reference 809, was named the Navitimer Cosmonaute, and Breitling regards it as the first Swiss wristwatch to travel to space.
In recent years the brand has dedicated two 41 mm limited editions with hand-wound calibres to the Cosmonaute: a 362-piece version with a platinum bezel in 2022, a number that combines the three orbits with the year of the flight, and a meteorite-dial version marking the Artemis II mission this year. In September it presented, at the same diameter, a 500-piece Navitimer B09 in tribute to the trumpeter Miles Davis. On 22 October, Breitling added the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute and the Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 to its permanent collection. According to the brand, this is the first time in its modern history that these models have been sold outside a commemorative or limited edition.
Technical Specs
Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute
References AB0230211B1X1 (leather strap) and AB0230211B1A1 (bracelet). Steel case, 41 mm in diameter, 13 mm thick and 47.09 mm lug to lug, 22 mm between the lugs; bidirectional steel bezel with circular slide rule; cambered sapphire crystal, anti-reflective on both sides; screwed steel caseback with sapphire crystal; non-screw-down crown with double gasket; water resistant to 30 m. Black dial with white sub-dials, 24-hour scale and date in the 6 o'clock sub-dial; Super-LumiNova on the hour and minute hands, numerals and indexes. Breitling Manufacture Calibre B02, hand-wound, 30 mm in diameter and 6.83 mm thick, 273 components, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), approx. 70-hour power reserve, COSC-certified; column-wheel chronograph with vertical clutch, 1/4-second, with 30-minute and 12-hour totalisers; 24-hour hours, minutes, seconds and date. Brown gradient calfskin strap with folding clasp, or seven-row steel bracelet.
Price: 10,600 dollars on the strap and 11,000 dollars on the bracelet. Permanent collection, on sale since 22 October 2026.
Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41
References AB0950211B1X1 and AB0950211B1A1 (black dial) and AB0950211C1X1 and AB0950211C1A1 (blue dial), on leather strap or bracelet. Case, bezel, crystals, crown and water resistance as on the Cosmonaute. Black or blue reverse-panda dial with white sub-dials and rehaut, no date; Super-LumiNova on the hour and minute hands, numerals and indexes. Breitling Manufacture Calibre B09, hand-wound, 30 mm in diameter and 6.73 mm thick, 244 components, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), approx. 70-hour power reserve, COSC-certified; column-wheel chronograph with vertical clutch, 1/4-second, with 30-minute and 12-hour totalisers; hours, minutes and seconds. Brown gradient (black dial) or blue gradient (blue dial) calfskin strap with push-button folding clasp, or seven-row steel bracelet.
Price: 7,900 dollars on the strap and 8,400 dollars on the bracelet. Permanent collection, on sale since 22 October 2026.
One case, two dials
Both watches share the case, the slide-rule bezel and the gold Twin Jet logo, and they differ in the dial. Breitling has used the Twin Jet since 1957 as the civilian version of the AOPA logo, which appeared on Navitimers sold to the association's members, and first put it on a Navitimer dial in 1965.
The Cosmonaute keeps the dial of reference 809: a black base, white sub-dials and an hour scale numbered from 1 to 24, because the hour hand makes a single turn each day. Carpenter asked for it because in orbit day and night follow one another several times during a flight, and on a 12-hour dial he could not have told eight in the morning from eight in the evening. The current version adds the date, integrated into the 6 o'clock sub-dial and matched to its colour, so it does not break the symmetry of the dial.
The B09 is modelled on the 1960s Navitimer worn by Jim Clark and Graham Hill, the British Formula 1 drivers, who also flew aircraft. Its black or blue dial has white sub-dials and a white flange around the edge, the reverse of a panda chronograph, which has a light dial with dark sub-dials. Since it has no date, no aperture breaks up the dial.
Two hand-wound calibres
The B02 and B09 are manufacture calibres, developed and made by Breitling, and share the same chronograph construction, with a column wheel and a vertical clutch. The column wheel coordinates start, stop and reset, and gives the pushers a smoother, more even feel than a cam system. The vertical clutch connects the chronograph to the movement through two discs pressed together, so the chronograph seconds hand starts without the small jump a horizontal clutch can produce, where two toothed wheels mesh side by side. The B02 also has the date and the 24-hour indication, and Breitling uses it only in the Cosmonaute.
Both calibres are certified as chronometers by the COSC, the Swiss body that tests the accuracy of movements before they are cased; ORELO explained what that certification measures in October, in its article on the Mido Multifort TV Big Date Chronometer. Being hand-wound, neither has a rotor, so the sapphire caseback shows the whole movement, without the oscillating weight that covers much of the bridges in an automatic calibre. Winding through the crown is also a ritual some collectors look for in a chronograph with historical roots.
Pricing in Mexico and Spain
On its Mexican site, Breitling lists prices in US dollars, and the Cosmonaute page states that they include VAT. The Cosmonaute costs 11,130 dollars on a strap and 11,550 on the bracelet, and the B09 8,300 and 8,820 dollars. In Spain, VAT included, the Cosmonaute costs 10,000 euros on a strap and 10,300 on the bracelet, and the B09 7,450 and 7,800 euros. In Mexico the brand has its own boutiques, such as the one on Playa del Carmen's Fifth Avenue.
A hand-wound Navitimer in the catalogue
The B09 uses the same calibre as the Miles Davis edition presented in September, and on a strap it costs 7,900 dollars, against 8,900 for that 500-piece edition. With the dial of the Clark and Hill Navitimer and no date, it is the simpler of the two watches and, again on a strap, costs 2,700 dollars less than the Cosmonaute, which adds the date and the 24-hour indication.
The catalogue Cosmonaute keeps what set its limited editions apart: the 24-hour dial of reference 809 and the B02 calibre, which Breitling uses in no other watch. Sixty-four years after the flight of Aurora 7, Breitling offers that dial in a watch from its permanent collection.
