Breitling’s Newest Watch Was Created with Endurance Sports In Mind
Some people are harder on their watches than others, and this can be a problem. Despite the fact that the world is full of sports watches originally designed for deep sea diving and timing race car circuits, as highly complex (and often extremely expensive) pieces of mechanical jewellery, most of these watches will never get anywhere near a shipwreck or a speedway. After all, just because your Range Rover can drive through mud up to its windows doesn’t mean you’ll ever do that – and that’s probably a good thing.
Breitling’s newest release, however, the Endurance Pro, is designed to hit the sweet spot between high-end Swiss engineering and, as the name suggests, extreme durability. At $3,600, it’s also the most affordably-priced piece in the Breitling collection. The Endurance Pro, which drops this week in a rainbow of sporty colours, is designed to stand up to the the rigours of sweat, heat and water (not to mention all the bumps and knocks you can throw at it) without missing a beat. To create it, Breitling sought input from German triathlete, olympic gold medalist and Breitling Squad member Jan Frodeno.
“When Jan Frodeno first became a member of our Triathlon Squad, he asked me what Breitling he should wear,” says Breitling CEO Georges Kern. “We started brainstorming about the perfect sporty lifestyle watch and that conversation led to the development of the Endurance Pro.”
As such, the Endurance Pro’s standout features are ideally suited for someone like Frodeno. For one, its large, 44mm case is made of Breitlight, a Swiss-made proprietary material that’s 3.3 times lighter than titanium and 5.8 times lighter than stainless steel. It also has the benefits of being nonmagnetic, thermally stable, hypoallergenic, and resistant to scratches and corrosion. Powering the new Endurance Pro is a thermo-compensated SuperQuartz movement that Breitling claims is ten times more accurate than conventional quartz.
Why quartz? Because unlike mechanical movements, whose fine inner workings don’t usually love getting banged around, quartz movements are lightweight and exceptionally durable, making them the ideal choice for mountain biking, bouldering and other high-impact pursuits.
The Endurance Pro is the latest in a long line of performance-oriented watches from Breitling, and traces its heritage back to the Breitling Sprint of the 1970s. Much like the Endurance Pro, the Sprint was a cutting-edge timepiece for its day, featuring a case made of resin and a pulsometre scale on its bezel for heart rate monitoring. Like its predecessor, the Endurance Pro features a pulsometre bezel and a chronograph function, while adding a unidirectional rotating bezel complete with cardinal compass points.
Available in white, blue, yellow, orange, or red, each model comes with a black dial, and is available on a Diver Pro rubber strap colour-matched to the inner bezel ring and winding crown. Also available from Breitling are a selection of NATO straps from pro surfer Kelly Slater’s Outerknown, which are made from Econyl, a tough nylon fabric manufactured from recycled fishing nets.
True to its sporty nature, the Endurance Pro is launching in collaboration with the Strava Challenge, a swimming, cycling and running event where competitors can measure their progress using the Strava fitness app. Competitors who complete 500 minutes over the course of two weeks – about the time it takes a world-class triathlete to complete a full IRONMAN event – will be eligible to win a Breitling Colnago C64 bike and Breitling jersey kits and, naturally, a Breitling Endurance Pro watch. Whether you’ll be fit enough for your first triathlon at that point is up to you. The Endurance Pro, however, will be ready when you are.
www.breitling.com/endurancepro
