Last year, just in time for the brand’s 140th anniversary, Breitling unveiled a proud achievement: The B19 perpetual calendar movement, an automatic manufacture caliber that built upon successively more sophisticated complications beginning with 2009’s B01. Fit within models in the Premier, Navitimer and Chronomat collections, the B19 was initially available in three stunning 18K red gold limited-edition watches.
Now, Breitling has carted over the B19 movement into a fresh reference within the Navitimer line — and it’s not a limited edition. Measuring 43mm in stainless steel and fitted with a platinum bezel, it features a handsome ice-blue dial that offsets the collection’s famous slide rule function with an elegant perpetual calendar layout: Beneath 12 o’clock is an illustrated moon phase indicator within a traditional cutaway; at 3 o’clock is a combination date indicator and 30-minute totalizer; above 6 o’clock is combination month and leap year indicator; and at 9 o’clock is a combination day indicator and running seconds display. Dual-function registers with two hands feature one in silver and a second in black, increasing legibility. Super-LumiNova on the main handset and at each applied hour index further help to give a quick register of the time.
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We dig into popular offerings from ETA, Miyota, Sellita and more, and answer the big question: “Why should I care?”Despite the plethora of information displayed on the dial, thoughtful design ensures that each of the readouts and registers is clear. (The interaction between the utilitarian slide rule bezel and the somewhat-more-poetic perpetual calendar is also fairly unique in the QP space.) One drawback to this particular reference to my mind, however, is the 43mm case, which strikes me, in 2025, as a relic of early 2000s watchmaking. Perhaps the brand determined that a smaller dial would have yielded an overly crowded readout? The B19 movement measures 30mm in diameter, so conceivably, a 40mm or smaller case is within the realm of possibility. Seeing as the brand makes 41mm Navitimers, perhaps there’s a chance that we’ll see a smaller QP using this movement in the future.
Speaking of the B19, it deserves some due attention: Beating at 4 Hz, it features a 96-hour power reserve via an automatic winding rotor and boasts column wheel and vertical clutch-powered action, both of which make for smooth chronograph operation. COSC-certified and manufactured at Breitling’s facilities in La Chaux-de-Fonds, it self-corrects for months featuring 28, 30 and 31 days, thus taking leap years into account and offering continuous, accurate operation for years on end (if kept continuously wound). Furthermore, it’s tested with a 16-year aging simulation that includes — among other things — 60,000 shocks at 500 Gs.
Available on both a stainless steel multi-link bracelet with a butterfly clasp as well as on a black alligator leather strap with a stainless steel folding buckle, the new non-limited Navitimer Perpetual Calendar Chronograph is an exciting addition to the Navitimer line, and will no doubt precede numerous colorways that satisfy both lovers of classic tool watch aesthetics as well as those desirous of something more left-of-center. If Breitling can shrink the case size down several millimeters, it’ll no doubt expand its fan base even further. At $29,000 on leather or $29,500 on steel, the Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar is by no means a casual buy — though compared to many Swiss-made perpetual calendars, it’s actually a value play.
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