While several series come close, no other sporting league matches the immense popularity of the National Football League in the United States. The NFL is a sporting juggernaut, spanning 32 teams across the USA and hosting what might well be the largest single-day sporting event in the world: the Super Bowl. As the league gears up for another season, Breitling announces a new long-term partnership with the NFL (the first time the NFL has paired with a Swiss luxury watch brand), and to kick off this new collaboration the brand has unveiled not one, but 32 individual limited edition Chronomat B01 42 dial variants to honor each team in the league. With a broad array of team-accurate colorways atop one of the brand’s most distinctive and versatile sports watch platforms, the limited edition Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection offers American football superfans perhaps the most stylish pieces of game-day wear ever created.
Each of the 32 references in the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection (which for the sake of brevity will not be listed here, but each is named the Breitling Chronomat B01 42, followed by the name of its corresponding NFL team) features a stainless steel case design nearly identical to the standard production Chronomat B01 42. Measuring in at 42mm wide and a substantial 15.1mm thick, these watches should offer the same bold, sporty modern presence on the wrist as their standard production counterparts. The full suite of modern Chronomat hallmarks are present and accounted for here, from the pronounced, flowing crown guards surrounding the pushers, to the sharp mix of linearly brushed planes and polished chamfers, as well as the ornate screw-edged unidirectional polished stainless steel bezel with its signature protective rider tabs. Around back, the sapphire display casebacks add a touch of novelty to the familiar layout with an applied full-color NFL shield logo and a commemorative “One of 104” engraving around the edge of the display window. Like the standard Chronomat B01 42, the Chronomat NFL Collection offers a hefty 200 meters of water resistance.
Naturally, the largest update to the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection is its 32 individual dial designs. Each NFL team gets its own distinctive colorway, but all of these variants share a common layout. The recessed white partial azurage subdials, faceted paddle handset, polished baton indices, and dual-sided silver outer chapter ring featuring both a tachymeter and decimal scale tie each model in the collection to each other and the broader Chronomat family, while allowing all 32 to develop unique personalities. Beyond featuring a handsomely rendered team logo in the 9 o’clock running seconds subdial, each model differentiates itself with a two-tone colorway lifted directly from the corresponding team’s iconic jersey. As a Los Angeles native and a Scandinavian-American, my two standouts from the collection have to be the Breitling Chronomat B01 42 Los Angeles Rams and the Breitling Chronomat B01 42 Minnesota Vikings, although the bright, playful turquoise and signal orange color palette of the Breitling Chronomat B01 42 Miami Dolphins is likely to attract enthusiast attention even outside die-hard football fan circles. For the Los Angeles Rams model, the dial takes on a rich royal blue tone, supplemented by deep, saturated yellow for the chronograph subdial hands and central chronograph seconds hand. Meanwhile, the dark, unusual purple of the Minnesota Vikings variant’s dial, along with its classic golden yellow accents, and finely detailed Viking head emblem at 9 o’clock, make it one of the most striking and unique offerings in the collection. Purist enthusiasts may decry the 6 o’clock date window on this collection, but it’s impressively well integrated on each model with a minimal disruption to overall dial symmetry.
For all 32 iterations of the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection, the brand turns to its in-house Caliber 01 automatic chronograph movement. The Caliber 01 has rightly earned its place as Breitling’s de facto flagship chronograph movement in recent years, with performance figures that stack up well against the best competition in this market segment. A hefty 70-hour power reserve, a 28,800 bph beat rate, and COSC chronometer certified accuracy make for an impressive combination, and the Caliber 01’s fully exposed vertical clutch and column wheel chronograph actuation system only serve to improve the spec sheet here. Finishing-wise, the Caliber 01 is no slouch either, with a variety of treatments including Côtes de Genève, arabesque brushing, and polished anglage visible through the caseback. To complete the package, each model in the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection is paired with a choice of either the line’s signature stainless steel rouleaux bracelet, or a black rubber deployant strap with a rouleaux-style texture.
When it comes to size, profitability, and sheer viewership, no other sporting league in the United States can match the NFL, and designing a luxury timepiece to satisfy all sides of this massive fanbase is no small task. However, the limited edition Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection combines one of its most stylish and versatile sports chronographs with a series of colorways and design flourishes that offers a taste of each team in the league, without losing sight of its own distinctive design language. Only 104 examples of each of the 32 models in the line will be made, for a total production run of 3,328 watches. All 32 models in the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection are available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for the watches in the Breitling Chronomat NFL Collection stands at $8,800 USD on rubber, and $9,200 USD on steel as of press time. For more details, please visit the brand’s website.
