One of the signature design elements of Breitling for Bentley watches continues to be the bezel engraving which is meant to evoke the look of Bentley car grills. I’ve never felt that it adds too much to the design, but it does help the watches look unique from other Breitling watches. Here, the grippy knurled style of the bezel surface is functional because the bezel rotates as part of the world time indicator – a clever feature.
On the left side of the case is what looks to be a helium release valve, but it isn’t, of course, since despite 100 meters of water resistance, this isn’t a dive watch. What you are looking at is a cap over a gearing system designed only to make the bezel rotation feel easy, but solid as your turn it in your hand. The way the world time system works is via an inner rotating part of the bezel which has a list of world time reference cities. Merely rotate the bezel so that the GMT hand lines up with your current timezone, and then use the 24-hour makers on the dial to read the time in other time zones. The fancy bezel system is Breitling’s way of making this low-tech means of offering a world time indicator… less low-tech.
I am happy to report that the Breitling for Bentley Light Body B04 S is among the most legible Breitling for Bentley watches around. This is due to the high contrast dial which is easy to read despite being relatively busy. Breitling makes the hands and hour markers a matte silver color which works very much in favor of being easy to read. In fact, aside from the applied Breitling logo, nothing about the watch case or dial is polished – a good thing, in my opinion.
While the Bentley name does appear on the dial, it is almost permanently obstructed by the hands. In a funny way, this is perhaps good since it will allow more watch lovers to appreciate this timepiece on its merits and get over the fact that it is dual-branded. If you really want to see that this is a collaboration watch, you can look on the caseback where you’ll once again see the Breitling and Bentley branding, but sadly, no sapphire crystal display window to see the movement.
Inside the watch is an in-house-made Breitling B04 automatic chronograph movement which is the same movement that is in the Breitling Chronomat 44 GMT (aBlogtoWatch review here). Operating at 4Hz (28,800bph) with a 70-hour power reserve, the movement includes the time, 12-hour chronograph, date, and GMT hand. It’s quite a lot of functionality and, combined with the world-time ring, helps make the Breitling for Bentley GMT Light Body B04 S watch quite well-rounded for daily wear.
Easily the most controversial part of the watch is the rubber strap. Breitling is known for conspicuous branding on its rubber straps, and here, “Bentley” is placed in large letters on each strap end. It doesn’t bother me, but I’ve heard from more than one person that they would prefer a lack of overt branding on the rubber strap. For me, the issue with the strap is that it must be cut to size. Moreover, the particular design of this watch and strap means that it is tough to stick your hand through it. With that said, once it is on your wrist, it is very comfortable. The good news is that the matching titanium folding deployant clasp has a handy micro-adjust system which means you can adjust the size a bit on the fly.
Captaining the Bentley Mulsanne Speed through Los Angeles with the Breitling for Bentley watch on my wrist felt a bit too natural. For all people say about how the two brands are odd pairs, when actually together, you get the sense that both brands are big on being both macho and conservative at the same time. Los Angeles is a place with both a lot of Bentley cars and Breitling watches, so I didn’t benefit from the type of attention driving around in such a vehicle might command in other parts of California, or the US, for that matter. I am, of course, deep in the heart of luxury car country.