The History of the Breitling Emergency
A Breitling Emergency ref. E56121.1 from the late 1990s
Breitling is mostly known for its tool watches, with a history that extends back to the 1930s and ‘40s – its early history with chronographs and pilot watches. The watch for today is a peculiar Breitling from the 1990s, a model that was really made for tough terrain and that used quartz or ‘superquartz’ movements.
The Breitling Emergency was released in 1995 and was special, not only for being a digi-analog wristwatch, but more so for having a built-in transmitter that broadcasts on the aircraft emergency frequency as a complement to the normal distress signal, the transmitter has a range of 160 Km (at a height of 6,000 meters). This piece was truly made for pilots. There were three versions: the Breitling Emergency, the Breitling Emergency Mission, and the Breitling Emergency Superquartz. The original Breitling Emergency of the 1990s was in a titanium case with the Professional titanium bracelet, it had a sapphire crystal and it used a Breitling 56/ETA 988.332. The Breitling Emergency was also made in white and yellow gold at the time. The other models like the Breitling Mission and Superquartz were released in the early 2000s and used ETA superquartz movements.
The Breitling Emergency Saving Lives
A Breitling Emergency ref. E76321 from the early 2000s
The Breitling Emergency really came to fame in the early 2000s, when it was responsible for saving two pilots/adventurers named Quentin Smith and Steve Brooks in 2003. The two were in a helicopter when it went down in between the southern tip of South America and Cape Horn. After gathering themselves and activating the Breitling Emergency’s transmitter, they were rescued after a total of 10 and a half hours! In total, Breitling claims that the Emergency has saved about 20 people up until 2010!
In the mid-2000s, the Breitling Emergency hit a real bump when the satellite support company for the Emergency’s 121.5MHz distress signal, Cospas-Sarsat, changed the frequency to 406MHz. And Breitling got to work releasing an updated version, the Breitling Emergency II, over the next few years.
Personally, I’d say the Breitling Emergency is a very intriguing piece of engineering, although not necessarily something I’d sport on my own wrist. There are several aspects to the Breitling Emergency that were particularly difficult to engineer (costing Breitling millions in R&D), the first is the distress signal which was a novelty when it was released, the second is the battery – which had to be built to endure very hard conditions, specifically regarding the cold weather – something that had not been done even by cell phone companies and their battery development teams before. This and its tool watch nature definitely makes it a noteworthy wristwatch. Another fun fact, the Breitling Emergency even had to gain FCC approval!
By: Andres Ibarguen
A Breitling Aerospace Avantage ref. E79362 for sale with its original box, for sale on Toronto Vintage Watches.