Breitling second Heritage Talk this month was dedicated to the Emergency watch. The exciting stories were brought by planet orbiter, Bertrand Piccard, journalist Gerard Tubb and technology specialist Olivier Desjeux.
Breitling spoiled watch aficionados this month by setting up not one but two Heritage Talks in February. The presenters this time were Bertrand Piccard, Swiss explorer, environmentalist, psychiatrist, and co-pilot of the first balloon making the first nonstop flight around the word the Breitling Orbiter 3, journalist and Emergency historian Gerard Tubb, and Olivier Desjeux, electronic & technology specialist, who participated in the R&D and industrialisation of the Breitling Emergency watch.
Gerard Tubb, who also contributed the ‘Breitling: 140 Years in 140 Stories’ anniversary book, gave an overview of the Emergency’s history. A wristwatch with the Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) was brain child of Ernest Schneider, who was a pilot and electronic communications engineer himself. As Gerard pointed out, he had lived in the era of great radio and electronic developments and was only 18 years old when Dick Tracy and his ultra-futuristic 2-Way Wrist Radio born. Comic and movie characters like Tracy have shaped Schneider’s childhood and influenced his choices later. Creating a life-saving Emergency watch was a dream he carried through, and nothing was too expensive to make it happen: it took 10 years to develop (introduced at Baselworld 1995) and it ate up $7+ million and untold hours. Breitling showcased several important early prototypes in the pop-up museum, such as a one-off two-part titanium case piece with the pre-Dassault ELT device from 1988, or the prototype number 0000 with the Dassault beacon from 1995. Gerard even showed a pre-production prototype with the serial number P 9, which has the wrong spelling of MHz on the dial.
This watch was made for people conquering the unknown like Bertrand Piccard. Being the son of undersea explorer Jacques Piccard and the grandson of famous balloonist Auguste Piccard, Bertrand has adventure is his blood. (Interestingly, Gene Roddenberry named Star Trek USS Enterprise’s commanding officer Jean-Luc Picard, after the twin brothers Auguste Piccard and Jean Piccard.)
Circling around the globe in a balloon was a covetable adventure in the late 20th century among explorers, aeronauts and billionaires, like Richard Branson and Steve Fossett. Many competitors made in-depth preparations, but had to face failures.
After failing twice himself in 1997 and 1998 and applying drastic changes after each, Bertrand Piccard accompanied by English balloonist Brian Jones, made the feat for the third try in 1999. The Breitling logo had been on all their balloons, flying suits as well as their wrists.
Piccard shed light on his relationship with Breitling. It started before the Orbiters, when in 1992 he embarked on ballooning as the co-pilot to Belgian balloonist, Wim Verstraeten in at the Transatlantic Balloon Race. The idea of his participation popped out during a dinner conversation, when due to his late arrival he happened to sit next to Verstraeten. They decided to fly together at the upcoming ballon race but Piccard needed sponsors. He was given the phone number of Theodore Schneider. As a lucky coincidence, he called Schneider on his birthday and the happy birthday boy had committed for the sponsorship right away. When they won the race, the Breitling logo was all over the papers to the greatest joy of Theodore Schneider who had already forgotten about the sponsorship, as Piccard explains. In the stupor of joy, Bertrand brought up a new idea of ballooning around the world – Schneider said yes.
At their first attempt, when they splashed into the Mediterranean after only 6 hours due to a fuel leak, they had the Emergency E56121 on their wrists (just like the one below that belonged to Richard Branson). For the second, which ended after 9 days as the Chinese authorities refused to grant overflight permission, they wore the orange version dedicated for the occasion. During the finally successful Orbiter 3 journey in 1999 (flying 45,755 kilometres in 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes), they wore the same watch as in the Orbiter 2. To commemorate the winning flight, Breitling created a blue dial version of the Emergency E56121 with the Orbiter 3 logo.
Bertrand shared that the collaboration with Breitling continues as he is preparing for the next adventure: a green hydrogen powered emission-free airplane to fly non-stop around the Earth. The project, called Climate Impulse is planned for 2028. His companion will be French engineer and fellow adventurer Raphaël Dinelli (Head of construction and co-pilot of Climate Impulse), who is supervising design and construction of the aircraft and will navigate the nine-day, non-stop journey around the equator.
The Heritage Talks continue in the spring in Breitling’s Zurich pop-up museum. Stay tuned.
Photo credits: Loupiosity.com
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