In 2019, Breitling overhauled its Superocean collection. While some might argue that a brand that built its reputation airborne has no business going underwater, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Breitling had already started making dive watches as early as 1957, so it’s a genuine multi-specialist; watches water-resistant to great depths really do fall within its scope. Among models launched in the 21st century, the Superocean Automatic 48 version has quite a lot going for it: high-tech, stylish and with close ties to the brand’s history.
Background
In spring 2019, Breitling had just changed ownership, having acquired a new boss only two years before that. Updating the Superocean was of major importance, since it would send a message about the brand’s new ethos. Being highly pragmatic, highly active and highly focused on quite short production runs and variations, the brand had no qualms about clearly positioning its dive watches as a mass-market product. At the same time, the Superocean 48 picked up another thread of the Breitling brand identity and one of its great strengths in the 1990s and 2000s: manliness. With a diameter of 48 millimetres and 17.25mm thick, its dimensions really are man-sized — for real men, broad-shouldered, sturdy types — despite the fact that smaller-diameter watches were once again becoming all the rage. 38mm and 36mm watches were re-emerging, even within the small world of underwater watches. Not only that: the fashion for vintage watches was already in full swing, including a Heritage version of the Superocean collection launched just one year earlier. Breitling was thus opting to target an audience that might well have felt abandoned at that point. It was against this backdrop that this hulk of a watch was born.
Variations
That’s not to say it wasn’t comfortable: the brand installed the case in question on a new type of rubber strap. Well aware that this size of watch makes wearing it on the wrist something of a challenge, Breitling developed a concertina-style strap. The Swiss generally tend to look down on this solution, long a speciality of low-cost brands for whom it’s a cheap way of keeping their monstrosities on slimmer wrists (notably Japanese ones), but here Breitling has managed to preserve its own distinctive style with angular rubber folds — a far cry from the more familiar, weedy-looking little bulges. Another comfort feature is the case, made of black DLC-coated titanium that cuts the weight of the model considerably to just 140 grammes, not much at all for a watch this size. To round the whole thing off, the piece was launched with three noteworthy dial options. The first of these was Breitling’s classic orange dial, offering excellent readability (and eminently noticeable ashore). Then there was a green dial, a feature that had yet to invade the watchmaking universe like so many alien creepers. Its first foray here was in the military shade of matte olive green. Lastly, Breitling indulged itself to the full with what had by then become a virtually mandatory blue version. In addition to this range of dial hues, there was the matter of the colour of the technical feature giving the Superocean 48 that special something.
Security
In addition to the large bezel cut from titanium and embellished with a ceramic insert, there was a deeply-notched lock at 9 o’clock — and it was in colour. This bezel lock has to be slid open to release the graduated ring. By the end of the 2010s virtually no depth records were left to be broken and dive watches were in search of a new lease of life in technical terms: security features were becoming the new horizon. This led to a profusion of plastic rings, pushers, and rotating flanges, each in their own way designed to control the rotating bezels destined to read off remaining dive times at a glance. Breitling opted for a relatively discreet mechanical solution. The ISO 6425 standard requires security, irrespective of how this is achieved, and the brand was confident enough in its device to install a bidirectional bezel that complied with it. Buoyed by its high-tech approach, lifestyle ethos, and attunement to the latest zeitgeist, the Superocean scooped an award in the dive watch category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2020.
This year GMT Magazine and WorldTempus have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the divers watch since 2000 in The Millennium Watch Book - Divers watch, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book - Divers watch is available in both French and English here:
