Breitling Aviator 8 B35 Automatic Unitime 43 Review
Today we’ll review just the kind of watch that can make life easier for a jet setter such as yourself.
Breitling Aviator 8 B35 Automatic Unitime 43 Review
What do actors Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, John Travolta, and Adam Driver all have in common? Aside from a lifestyle and career that requires them to be in the air and on the go? They all love Breitling, an independent luxury watchmaker that has earned its respected place in the hearts and minds of watch collectors and enthusiasts the world over. Today we’ll review just the kind of watch that would make life easier for jet setters like these.
Enter the Breitling Aviator 8 B35 Automatic Unitime 43. Essentially it was made for pilots since it is designed and engineered to be up in the air more than on the ground. For Breitling, this is certainly a special timepiece, and for numerous reasons. Let’s pop that hood and see some of the mechanics that make this watch quite something else.
Breitling’s Automatic Caliber B35 Unitime is an in-house, COSC Certified Chronometer with a World Time function and the first of its kind for Breitling. It is Breitling’s very first in-house movement that didn’t come with a Chronograph complication. In fact, it uses a function patented by Breitling called a World Time complication.
This feature displays global/world time by way of an inner rotating bezel that many of shows 24 of the earth’s major cities in the 24 different time zones and rotates together with the hour hand to make it easy to tell the time no matter what, no matter where.
These major cities or locations are Anchorage, Auckland, Azores, Bangkok, Beijing, Denver, Dhaka, Dubai, Honolulu, Karachi, Kiev, London, Los Angeles, Mexico, Moscow, New York, Noumea, Paris, Puerto Rico, Rio De Janeiro, South Georgia, Sydney, Tokyo, and Tonga.
The COSC pedigree is impressive as almost every Breitling I’ve ever seen has one and they are impressively accurate for a mechanical timepiece. What caught me by surprise is what Breitling calls the in-house movement.
The B35 movement is in fact built on an ETA 2892 base caliber which is then fitted with Breitling’s World Time module in their factory with some perks. Perks like a nice power reserve upgrade. The ETA 2892 is a 21-jewel caliber that only offers a 42-hour power reserve along with some other nice features such as hacking seconds for precise time setting, an Incabloc shock-absorbing system, ball bearing for a smooth self-winding spinning rotor.
However, by the time it is magically transformed into the Breitling B35 it a 41-jewel movement that has a 70-hour power reserve. Of course, the addition of the World Time feature is a huge plus too, but we can’t ignore the rest of the benefits either.
The Breitling Aviator Unitime 8 B35 43mm collection comes in a stainless steel case and has several models in the series. The one featured here has a brown alligator leather strap with white stitching and silver sunray dial with luminous hour and minute hands for telling the time in low-light conditions.
The dial has Breitling’s ‘B’ icon at the 12 o’clock position in a rose gold-tone and features luminous triangles and Arabic numerals for the hours with a railroad-style black printed minute track.
The inner bezel is split into two colors, blue and black with white Arabic numerals displaying the numbers 1 through 24 and a silver section on the perimeter of the dial shows the city names in a black print.
The case provides steel two-directional rotating bezel which is notched for a firm grip. It has a polished and brushed finish and measures at 43mm across with a thickness of 14.55mm. It has the kind of weight you would expect from a luxury timepiece with this much going on inside. And feels comfortable to wear with its curved lugs.
The strap is fastened by a brushed and polished steel pin buckle/tang buckle and is engraved with the Breitling ‘B’ icon and wordmark beneath it. It’s available on either a black, brown, or blue alligator leather strap or on a stainless-steel bracelet with a folding (deployant) buckle. The watch comes with either a silver or a black dial.
Two models have a black dial:
Three models have a silver dial:
Summary: There is much to like about this watch. The added World Time function is definitely a plus and fun to watch in action. It’s a solid watch with an excellent COSC certified movement that has an above-average power reserve.