Sure, you’d love to slip behind the wheel of the new Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible, the marque’s newest creation. But if your portfolio’s taken a beating of late, perhaps you’ll settle on the new Breitling Premier Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition, a new timepiece dedicated to the partnership of the two iconic brands.
The new Breitling timepiece commemorates 17 years of collaboration – the longest-ever partnership between a watch brand and an automobile manufacturer – and focuses on the Bentley Mulliner workshop, which has crafted the luxury carmaker’s most unique tailor-made models since 1959.
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Breitling’s partnership with Bentley Motors can be traced back to 2002 when the watch brand was tapped to create the onboard clock of the auto maker’s legendary Continental GT. The new chronograph has some close links to the interior of the Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible, the most luxurious GT ever designed, and particularly to the Breitling clock in the luxury automobile’s dashboard.
Limited to 1,000 pieces, the new timepiece features a 42-millimeter stainless steel case presented on a blue alligator leather strap, echoing the Imperial Blue leather interior of the car. Its elegant silver dial recalls the Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible’s dashboard clock, while the timepiece’s blue subdials – a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a small-second subdial at 9 o’clock – revealing the presence of the COSC-certified Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, with an impressive power reserve of approximately 70 hours. The dial also features a white tachymeter scale on a blue inner bezel around the dial, with a red tachymeter inscription.
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The links between the watch and the auto clock are further strengthened by their complementary sets of Arabic numerals: the dashboard clock features the numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9, while the watch has them at 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11. Sharing these numerals across the two pieces is a nod to the design DNA they share, while the red second hand and centered 60-minute scale mirror the red stitching found throughout the interior cabin of the Bentley Continental GT Mulliner Convertible.
On the left side of the case is a plate with an engraved “Bentley” inscription, whose design is based on the engine spin dashboard found in historic Bentleys. Around the watch’s transparent sapphire caseback is an inscription that reads “MULLINER EDITION – BREITLING – ONE OF 1000”.
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