Breitling has reached for the sky, not only by aeroplane but on a history-making balloon.
One chapter in its "140 Years Of Firsts" goes back to March 1999, when the Swiss watchmaker sponsored the first nonstop balloon flight around the world.
After travelling 45,633km in almost 20 days, balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones landed the Breitling Orbiter 3 in the Egyptian desert on March 21.
Accomplishing the longest flight, both for distance and duration, they became the first to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon.
The transparent caseback shows a segment of the history-making balloon.
A segment of the balloon is visible through the transparent caseback of the Aerospace B70 Orbiter 25th anniversary edition.
The mission logo appears around the perimeter of the caseback and on the dial at 3 o'clock.
The bright orange face echoes the colour of the Orbiter 3 capsule while numerals, indexes and hands are coated with luminescent Super-LumiNova, making them legible even in low light.
Both the 43mm case and optional bracelet have been crafted in titanium. With the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal, the robust material is also nonmagnetic, hypoallergenic and highly resistant to corrosion.
The COSC-certified Breitling Manufacture Caliber B70 is a thermo-compensated SuperQuartz analogue and digital display movement that delivers 10 times the accuracy of a standard quartz watch.
This engine powers the various functions, including a 1/100th of a second chronograph (with split-time and flyback functions), countdown timer, second time zone, two alarms, lap function and perpetual calendar.
