Even watchmakers known for specialty timepieces are getting onto the smart watch bandwagon. We’re talking about specialist luxury timepiece manufacturer Breitling, who are famous for their mechanical aviation watches. Baroque Lifestyle takes a close look
The company has just released an innovative smart watch, the Exospace B55, which it calls a “connected watch”. The timepiece has many of the characteristics of a smart watch, with full-blown applications just like its predecessors, the Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear S2. But that’s where the similarity ends.
Breitling, like TAG Heuer, is appealing to a more discerning market, that group of people who prefer to wear a standard timepiece than a smartwatch. These are people who are more traditional, but still want to have the latest applications available.
So what sets the Breitling B55 apart? The brand new Exospace features not one, but two, LCD displays behind the mechanical hands. These displays are used to display all the notifications coming from the paired smartphone, such as incoming messages, email, phone calls and even meeting appointments and other important calendar dates. The displays are sophisticated enough to reveal the name of the person who is calling or sending an email or message, not to mention every other type of relevant information.
Owners of Breitling’s beautiful timepiece utilize an accompanying iPhone app. They can also use the watch much like a traditional one, setting alarms, setting the time and choosing a time zone, for instance. Of course, this is not an Apple watch, so don’t expect to have your fitness tracked, or for the watch to work out how many calories you’ve burned.
Breitling is far more interested in its loyal followers, so you can expect the watch to have every possible aviation-friendly feature available. So where’s the luxury, you may ask. For starters, this timepiece has a case made out of black titanium and the watch itself features a “SuperQuartz” movement. It’s also waterproof, with a multi-function movement and much, much more.
With the combined features of a smart watch and a luxury Breitling aviation timepiece, you know you’re getting something special. But you will have to pay the price for that. We’re talking almost $9,000, which makes it a cut above many of the rest of the smart watches out there.
But that’s the price you pay for innovation, performance and functionality of the kind that Breitling offers. It’s certainly a major technological breakthrough for the watchmaker, who has made its mark historically by pushing boundaries.
The Exospace B55 was tested, created and manufactured in Switzerland – and this includes the smart phone applications. It offers an exclusive, sporty two-tone rubber TwinPro strap in three versions: blue on black, anthracite on black or grey on black.