Breitling Back On The Grid With Aston Martin Navitimer B01 Chronograph

In a move that feels like a long-overdue reunion, Breitling joins Aston Martin and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team as Official Watch Partner.

It’s a global, multi-year partnership that binds two marques shaped by speed, precision, and an almost obsessive respect for engineering.

This new chapter opens with a statement piece: the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team Edition—a watch that signals Breitling’s return to the pinnacle of motorsport and repositions the Navitimer firmly back where it has always belonged: at the intersection of timing and velocity.

For more than a century, Breitling and Aston Martin have followed parallel trajectories. In 1907, Léon Breitling introduced the Vitesse, one of the earliest instruments capable of measuring speed with true precision—so accurate it was adopted by Swiss police to issue the world’s first speeding fines. Around the same time in England, Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford were pushing a hand-built car up Aston Hill. The car won. The name endured.

This shared DNA—speed quantified, speed conquered—runs through everything that followed.

Aston Martin entered Formula 1® in 1959. In that same era, drivers Graham Hill and Jim Clark—both aviators as well as F1® champions—were wearing Breitling Navitimers. Designed in 1952 as a wrist-borne cockpit instrument, the Navitimer’s circular slide rule allowed pilots to calculate speed, distance, and fuel consumption on the fly. Hill and Clark simply carried those tools from the sky to the circuit, making the Navitimer as relevant trackside as it was at 30,000 feet.

By the 1960s, both brands had transcended utility to become cultural symbols. Willy Breitling’s Top Time rejected post-war restraint in favor of bold modernism, while Aston Martin’s DB5 redefined automotive elegance. When both appeared in Thunderball, they didn’t just share screen time—they crystallised an era where sophistication, speed, and technology collided.

This is a partnership rooted in substance, not surface and why the Breitling–Aston Martin partnership works. It’s not about logos on carbon fibre; it’s about shared values. Design with purpose. Engineering under pressure. Performance that doesn’t need explanation.

The Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team is unlike any Navitimer before it. For the first time, the model is housed in titanium, reducing weight while increasing wearability—an unmistakable motorsport influence. The carbon-fibr edial, lifted straight from the language of the F1® cockpit, is paired with Aston Martin Racing Green and lime accents drawn from the current livery. The leather strap, textured to recall a racing harness, completes the connection.

Turn the watch over and the story deepens. Beneath sapphire sits the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, COSC-certified, column-wheel controlled, with a 70-hour power reserve—still one of the most respected automatic chronograph movements in modern watchmaking. The matte-black tungsten rotor, exclusive to this edition, bears the Aston Martin Formula One™ Team logo, alongside engravings reading “One of 1959” and “Instruments for Drivers.”

Breitling’s logo will appear on the Aston Martin Aramco car and team apparel when the AMR26 is unveiled on 9 February, with its on-track debut at the Australian Grand Prix in March 2026. More importantly for collectors, this first release sets the tone for what promises to be a series of highly considered collaborations throughout the partnership.

Technical Specifications:

NAVITIMER B01 CHRONOGRAPH 43 ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO FORMULA ONE™ TEAM

Reference: EB01381A1B1X1

WATCH MOVEMENT

Caliber: Breitling Manufacture Caliber B01

Diameter: 25.6 millimeters

Depth: 4.6 millimeters

Winder: Self-winding mechanical

Power reserve: approximately 70 hours

Number of components: 346

Chronograph: column-wheel, vertical clutch, 1/4th second, 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers

Display: hour, minute, second, date-window

Certification: COSC-certified