Breitling ups the octane levels with the addition of a Chronograph Tourbillion to its Top Time muscle car collection.
When it comes to muscle cars, no one does it better than the Americans. If you want something luxurious, smooth as silk and infinitely elegant, you go German, but if you want to piss off your girl’s father (and secretly make him adore you), create the sound of a devil’s orgasm with your tailpipe, and measure miles by the cup, not the gallon, then you buy American.
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Breitling has been souping up its precision chronographs with high complications since the 1940s, and now it builds on that tradition by adding a tourbillon to the Top Time Classic Cars Collection, the series that celebrates the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette, and Shelby Cobra.
The new Top Time B21 Classic Cars Chronograph Tourbillon is equipped with the same Breitling Caliber B21 that made its debut last year in the Premier Tourbillon. To create the movement, Breitling worked hand in hand with speciality movement maker Manufacture La Joux-Perret, taking the uncommon step of combining a tourbillon with a chronograph to make the watches so distinctly Breitling. It’s the first time the Swiss watchmaker has introduced a tourbillon in the Top Time Collection, and it has been combined with some suitably exotic materials, including bronze, ceramic, and titanium for the cases, and walnut burl on one of the dials.
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The Top Time B21 Ford Mustang has a 43-mm bronze case with a titanium back, and a green dial to match the colours of the first-generation Ford Mustang, produced from 1964 to 1974. It was a car that truly captured the freewheeling spirit of the ’60s.
The Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra has a 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. The blue dial matches the livery of the car, created in 1962 by Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby, who combined a small, light, British-style chassis with a strong, reliable American small-block engine.
The Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette has a 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. The walnut burl dial and perforated leather racing strap are a homage to the steering wheel and dashboard inlays of the legendary 1960s “Sting Ray” Chevy Corvette.
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Breitling worked with the speciality movement maker Manufacture La Joux-Perret to develop the B21. Running at a frequency of 28,800 a/h (4 hertz), with a power reserve of 55 hours, the Breitling Caliber B21 has a column-wheel-controlled design with a horizontal clutch. It is a COSC-certified chronometer with a skeletonized oscillating weight that allows a view of the column wheel through the caseback.
The tourbillon houses the balance wheel, balance spring, and escapement in a rotating cage, setting the entire assembly in perpetual motion—and effectively cancels—the pull of gravity, which affects the watch’s accuracy in different positions.
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