Hands-On With Breitling’s Most Underrated Watch: The Premier Datora 42

There are certain brands that get pigeonholed into an equally certain genre of watches. If you track Breitling in what I’ll call the modern era (meaning the mid-1980s to today), you’ll likely associate the brand with a toolishness that is consistent through watches like the Chronomat, the Aerospace, and the Navitimer. In the mid-aughts, the Superocean also surfed back into the zeitgeist. Breitling is one of those brands that is sneakily (for some, not for me…for me it’s not sneaky at all) perhaps the second or third most recognizable name in watches. 

Look back to pop culture in the ‘90s, and it it filled the screens of the most renowned sitcoms of that era, and of all time. Jerry Seinfeld, the preeminent Breitling guy, wore different Breitling watches basically throughout the entire run of his series Seinfeld (then continued wearing them on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee). Similarly, Courtney Cox prominently wore a Chronomat, with its recognizable Rouleaux bracelet, in her turn as Monica on Friends. 

Breitlings are tool watches, explorers' watches, and adventurers' watches. The brand makes a watch with a function to save you should you get lost somewhere in the wilderness when all modern technology fails. But did you know that Breitling also — low-key — makes some of the best (dare I say) attainable, haute-horology watches at scale today? I am talking stuff that might make you rethink whether or not you jump up to a six-figure Patek.

It is in that spirit that we arrive at today’s subject: The Breiting Datora, part of its Premier collection. The Premier line pays homage to the Breitling of yesteryear, B.S. (Before Seinfeld). I am talking about the 1930s and ‘40s when triple calendars, complete calendars, and moon-phases were the coin of the realm and far more prevalent than they are today from a mass-market perspective. The modern Breitling Premier Datora is a complete calendar chronograph moon-phase watch that comes in a few forms (including precious metals), but for this review we will be focusing on the steel model which clocks under $15,000 — yes, for a complete calendar chronograph moon-phase. No, I am not joking.

In many ways, I consider this to be one of the most compelling models Breilting makes today, and quite frankly, it barely gets mentioned. Let’s change that, shall we? So what we have is a 42mm model that very clearly plays off a certain 1940s design motif. It has a copper dial, which definitely reads as salmon to my eyes, and you can’t go wrong with a salmon dial.

The dial has a really well-spaced layout that provides excellent legibility despite the level of complication. The day and the month are situated in what I would consider to be a classic position and the backdrop to the text is white, which gives good separation from the copper dial surface. The date is in the 6 o’clock subregister in a pointer format that circumvents the moon-phase. The moon-phase itself is very classically decorated, in an almost art deco styling. This subregister also houses the Datora wordmark which, according to the brand, “was a term used by Breitling in the 1940s and refers to a complete calendar chronograph displaying day, date, month and the different moon phases.”

Rounding things out are the running seconds at 9 o'clock and the 30-minute totalizer at 3 o’clock, bringing together the wealth of complications in this classically dressy number. I really like the use of applied numerals, as they really integrate into the entirety of the design, occasionally becoming obscured by the subregisters in an elegant way. There is also the step that leads to the internal tachymeter scale. All of this is to say that this dial should be too busy, and yet it isn’t. It’s that elegant approach to the complicated nature that made me even utter the word Patek in the same (typed) breath as Breitling earlier.

In order to even consider how to approach a dial like this, you need the movement that makes everything possible. Inside is the Caliber B25, a column-wheel chronograph movement with complete calendar and full moon-phase functionality (and 48 hours of power reserve). One thing you will find on this movement — a Breitling tradition really, that you will almost never find in high horology — is a chronometer certification. So not only are you dealing with a highly capable movement, but also one that is highly accurate. Those two things do not often go hand in hand. Is it decorated to a HH degree? No, but the sort of industrial nature of it is what ties it back to the Breitling collection writ large.

Overall, this 42mm wide by 15.35mm high watch is a touch thick, but so much of that goes away on the wrist. This wears very well and brings a contemporary feel to a classic styling with little nods of deco charm by way of the case finishing overall. This is a watch that shouldn’t be slept on, and you will certainly be hearing more from us on this one soon. 

The Breiting Datora B25 in steel is priced at $14,500. For more information visit Breitling online.