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Breitling’s new Bentley chrono matches style with performance


Motoring and watchmaker collaborations are common. All too common, some might say. As such, it’s refreshing when partnerships endure beyond the nominal year or two, and become more than just a marketing exercise.

This is the case for Bentley and Breitling, whose new timepiece commemorates a 17 years of collaboration (the longest partnership between a watch brand and an automobile manufacturer, they claim). The latest co-created watch is the Breitling Premier Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition and is inspired by Bentley’s new Continental GT Mulliner Convertible.

The new COSC-certified 1/8th of a second chronograph echoes the interior of the Continental GT Mulliner Convertible, particularly the Breitling clock in the car’s dashboard. Limited to 1,000 pieces, the £7,000 watch has a 42mm steel case presented on a blue alligator leather strap, with the silver dial mirroring the tone of the GT Mulliner’s dashboard clock.


The blue subdials – a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a small-second subdial at 9 o’clock – are powered by Breitling’s Manufacture Caliber 01, which has a power reserve of 70 hours. The dial features a white tachymeter scale on a blue inner bezel around the dial, with a red tachymeter inscription.

Further links between the watch and the car clock are complementary sets of Arabic numerals, a red second hand and centred 60-minute scale mirror the red stitching found throughout the interior cabin of the Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible.

Finally, on the left side of the case is a plate with an engraved “Bentley” inscription, just in case there was any doubt of the connection to this 100m water-resistant chrono.


The Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible follows two other Bentley First Editions from the company’s centenary year: the GT Number 9 and the GT Convertible Number 1 limited editions. The Mulliner Convertible will be the only Continental GT to have a Breitling-edition clock in the car. Another feature of note the GT Mulliner Convertible has is a 2,200-watt Naim stereo with 18 speakers and two active bass transducers.

By historical comparisons, the new Breitling Premier Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition is remarkably restrained. Back in 2015, Bentley and Breitling unveiled possibly the most expensive car accessory ever created with their mechanical Mulliner Tourbillon clock for the Bentayga SUV.

Machined in solid gold (customers could select from either rose or white gold), with a choice of either a mother-of-pearl or black ebony faces and decorated with eight diamond indexes, this horological addition apparently costed a staggering £150,000. And this was on top of the £160,000 for the Bentayga itself.

Jeremy White is WIRED’s executive editor. He tweets from @jeremywired

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