Breitling’s latest chapter, revealed at Geneva Watch Days, arrives for the centennial of Miles Davis’s birth, in the form of the Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Miles Davis, a 500-piece limited edition modelled on the mid-1960s reference 806 Mk5 that Davis wore long before tool watches became a style category.
Davis was a man who understood the value of leaving things out. Where his contemporaries filled every bar, he used space and silence as instruments in their own right, and the same instinct governed everything else about him, from the Italian tailoring to the sports cars to the watch.
The Navitimer has never been a subtle object. Its circular slide rule alone gives it more visual information than most watches carry in total. What made Davis’s 806 Mk5 distinctive was the way it calmed all of that down, and the tribute keeps faith with the original in the details that matter.
The 41mm steel case matches the diameter of the reference Davis owned. The dial is a monochrome reverse panda with a white rehaut and subdials, lit by old radium Super-LumiNova in the cream tone that vintage collectors chase, and it carries the period-correct Twin Jet emblem rather than the winged AOPA logo. The Navitimer was developed in 1952 exclusively for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which sold it directly to its members, and the Twin Jet marked the civilian versions later sold through Breitling retailers. Davis’s Mk5 was the first to pair that emblem with a reverse-panda dial.
Inside is the hand-wound Breitling Manufacture Caliber B09, a deliberate nod to the era before automatic chronographs existed. It runs 244 components at 4Hz with a column wheel and vertical clutch, delivers approximately 70 hours of power reserve and is COSC certified, all visible through a sapphire caseback engraved with “One of 500” and “Miles Davis Centennial”.
The tribute is offered on a hand-coloured gradient brown calf strap or, more temptingly, on the revived Air Racer bracelet. Introduced in the 1960s and later worn by Serge Gainsbourg through the 1980s, the rally-inspired steel bracelet keeps its vented design and gains hinged links towards the clasp for wearability.
Each set holds three 806 Mk5 tributes in stainless steel, 18k yellow gold and platinum, the first two in classic black and white reverse panda and the platinum on a blue dial with contrasting white subdials and outer slide-rule scale. The presentation case is modelled on a traditional trumpet case, down to the handle, twin clasps and reinforced corners, with a blue lining that nods to Kind of Blue, a blue record mounted in the lid and a miniature red trumpet resting above the watches.
