Horological Meandering

A little more background

 

Thanks to Fred for giving us a lot of amazing material on these watches already.

Thanks to Nilo for unearthing these watches and photgraphing them so eloquently.

I can perhaps add a small amount of extra background info.

The Transocean is actually reference that goes back to the Fifties. Initially released as a time only watch and
I believe in two versions, chronometer rated and regular. It started life, in what I imagine, was an attempt to take on
the Omega Constellation and Longines Conquest.

The TopTime series, is perhaps one of the most accesible vintage Breitlings to get, it obviously has a lot in common with the Heuer Carrera and
many other styles of watches being made in the Sixties.

It was created with the specific aim of moving chronographs away from an older professional market that Breitling had been selling to in the Forties and Fifties and was Breitling embracing the Swinging Sixties, with a deliberate shift in branding aimed at a younger market and women as well.

(Credit - Dracha at Breitlingsource)

Breitling promoted it in fashion magazines like Vogue and the large chronograph was specifically also aimed at the slender female wrist, quite ahead of it's time given the current vogue for women to wear men's wristwatches.

James Bond also for the first time got to wear a Breitling Top Time, although not an off the shelf model, but one that had a special extra case put on it by the production designers. I'm not one hunderd percent sure, but I think this is the only advert for any brand I've seen from this period that makes a feature of product placing a watch in a Bond film.

It's also been said that Jim Clark, considered one of the great motor racing drivers of the period, wore a TopTime.

This message has been edited by Ubik on 2013-04-16 06:06:08