Breitling Emergency watches

The Breitling Emergency is a pilot's watch with a distress beacon built into the case. The idea came out of a NATO conference in the mid-1980s, where false beacon activations were a talking point, and Breitling developed the watch with Dassault Electronique. It arrived in 1995, transmitting on the 121.5 MHz international distress frequency, with a range of up to 167 km. At first it was sold only to licensed pilots; later the titanium watch was offered to anyone who signed to accept the cost of a rescue set off by a false alarm. Breitling sold 40,000 before the first model was retired in 2010.

The original is a 43 mm titanium case with a compass bezel. The Emergency Orbiter shares its name with the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon, whose two pilots each wore an Emergency on the first non-stop flight around the world in 1999. It came in titanium (E56321) and in white gold (J56321), the gold version limited to 20 pieces.

In 2009 the 121.5 MHz frequency began to be phased out as the primary distress frequency. Breitling's answer, the Emergency II of 2013, was presented as the first wristwatch with a dual-frequency personal locator beacon: it sends a 406 MHz alert picked up by the Cospas-Sarsat satellites and a 121.5 MHz signal that rescuers home in on, for 24 hours and down to -20°C. The beacon runs on its own rechargeable battery, separate from the COSC-certified SuperQuartz calibre 76 that drives the hands and LCD display.

The Emergency II is a big watch: 51 mm across, 21.6 mm thick, in titanium, water-resistant to 50 m. The titanium versions came with black, yellow or orange dials on a titanium bracelet or rubber strap. The Night Mission versions have black dials accented in orange or yellow, blue or green mother-of-pearl dials, gem-set Diamondworks bezels, and boutique editions of 100 in carbon or with a white dial.