Karl Breitner Watches
Karl Breitner is a Swiss watch brand based at Solothurn, a small town with a watchmaking tradition of nearly one century. The brand, founded by Karl Breitner, carries a rich heritage of more than 100 years.
In the 19th century, on the prime of horology, lived Karl Breitner, researcher, explorer, innovator, who dedicated his life to watch production. The main normative of his work were the years spent in the military, where he played an important role as a first engineer in navigation and aviation.
At first his time-keeper devices served the prestigious superiors of the military sphere, they were popular among officers, lieutenants and pilots. He made real mechanical masterpieces, his watches were characterised by exactitude, high-class quality and fine elegance. He gained a name for himself within the circle of the highbrow nobility of the time.
Today Karl Breitner’s spirit carries on in the factory built at the feet of the Swiss Jura Mountain, in the silent baroque town called Solothurn, where the watch manufacturing has a nearly centenary tradition.
With several decades of experience, the company‘s watchmakers are committed, precise and fond of their work. They combine the traditional watchmaking with the sophisticated new technology to give life to unique timepieces labeled under Karl Breitner brand name.
Karl Breitner’s products proudly hold the prestigious Swiss made label, which is one of the horology world’s most rigorous labelling. Beside heir Swiss origin, they bear evidence of carefully selected and applied basic materials, sophisticated exactitude and highest quality.
The mechanism of Karl Breitner timepieces is the one used in the most renowned brands, manufactured in the eminent ETA and Ronda movement factories. The most important mission of the brand is to manufacture prestigious and high quality Swiss luxury timepieces to serve many generations.
The Founder
Karl Breitner was born in 1851 in Ramsgate, a small port in the United Kingdom. He was the offspring of a noble family with aristocratic past, title and authority. They belonged to the leading noble class; some say that even Princess Victoria paid her duty to them.
They fulfilled their commitment in accordance with their title, but their lifestyle was a more modest one. His father, unlike other noble men, never went hunting, but dedicated his life to science, research and innovation. He spent most of his time in his workshop, where he made perpetual-motion machines, Dutch clocks and other mechanical movements.
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| Karl Breitner |
Needless to say, his son, Karl Breitner, contemplated his father’s work from the beginning. This way he gained very soon interest in the secrets of mechanics. His parents observed at an early age that he was very intelligent.
At the age of seven, when they sent him to the Canterbury school, he could already play on three musical instruments, he could write, read and performed well in mathematics. During his elementary classes he was very interested in physics, mathematics and chemistry, which his father also taught him at home when they worked together on new inventions, or developed the old movements.
The years went by and his father took him in the summer holiday to the London Inventors Club, where he only watched silently the creations, inventions. He then decided to create something unique, and without his father’s consent he began to experiment with building a watch.
Secretly, he tried to put together that timepiece far into the night, he disassembled and assembled it again and again, always modifying and correcting something on it. He never told something to anybody about his plan; he waited tenaciously till the day when the promised London visit arrived again. There he stepped forward with his timepiece.
Those present, but especially the surprised father, admired him silently, while the 17-year old child presented his work with enthusiasm, delight and expertise. The inventors analyzed the new invention thoroughly, and found it a very precise, profound and complex work.
His father was very proud of him; he immediately bought noble metals and qualitative basic materials, so that the timepieces manufactured by his son could be more precise and valuable. Karl Breitner’s real work began by this time, when selling the timepieces to the peripheral noble families. But soon the reputation of these refined mechanical movements spread in all South England.
The time arrived for him to go to university. On his teachers’ advice his parents sent him to one of the leading universities of their time, to the Faculty of Mechanics and Art at the Sorbonne University in Paris. The academic years brought major changes to his life; he became a professional with the help of his companions and teachers.
Due to his scholastic achievements and his audacity, his timepieces got widespread fame. His teachers tried to convince him to stay, they offered him a job as teaching assistant, but military duty called him off.
During the time spent in the military, he also became acquainted with sailing. In the beginnings he drew navigation maps, and got busy developing his own inventions. Being a great mechanic, they transferred him from the fleet to the army’s aircraft manufacturing plant as first engineer, where he was responsible for the planning and the production of aircraft models.
He became fond of navigation and aviation. He learned a lot from them, his experience was decisive in his later work. His military years ended when his father died and he hurried back in his native town, Ramsgate.
He felt it was his duty to revive his father’s old workshop, where he could work now as a highly qualified watchmaker. He inherited a great asset, this way he could purchase the best machinery from France, so that his products would stand the proof for the highest demands. He dedicated the rest of his days to watchmaking, served the most famous people of his time with classic, precise, high-quality timepieces.
Almost a century later the Swiss brand invigorate his spirit, his work, his principles, his commitment and his ambition further in the town of Solothurn. Here, every single timepiece combines these features, this tradition with the contemporary Swiss top technology, and proudly wears the name Karl Breitner on their dial.
Production
Karl Breitner timepieces are manufactured in Solothurn, a small Swiss town with a watchmaking tradition of nearly one century. More than fifty employees ensure with great devotion, high know-how and the most sophisticated instruments, so that the timepieces comply with the highest expectations. The precise work of expert team is assured by specially selected primary materials, and impeccably detailed implementation.
Each of Karl Breitner’s timepieces has the prestigious “Swiss made” inscription, which is one of the most severe labellings in the horology world. This labelling conditions not only the Swiss origin and the high-quality design of the timepieces, but it also assures the sophisticated and original characteristics, which elevate the watchmaking standards to highest levels.
To ensure great exactitude and long-time trustworthiness they use the movements of the famous ETA and Ronda, also preferred by the most considerable brands. For the sake of concentration and accuracy, the workshop ensures absolute tranquility and spotlessness.
This way great attention is paid to the timepieces, when passing through the different manufacturing stations to spring into existence. After the first assembling of mechanical timepieces, the watchmakers dismantle them again to clean them up, to oil them up, and them assemble and calibrate them again.
The product is subject to severe quality and aesthetic inspection after each essential manufacturing phase, thus to guarantee the excellence of the product. The water-proofness is tested with special, high atmospheric pressure instruments, above the allotted parameters, thus assuring the accuracy of this important indicator.
Karl Breitner factory
Karl Breitner factory was built at the end of 1915, during the First World War, under the Jura Mountain, in the silent town of Solothurn. The town is considered one of the most original baroque settlements, which combines Italian brilliance, French charm and German pragmatism.
This considerable settlement is merely 30 kilometers away from the famous Bienne, and is often called as the town of the ambassadors. Buildings designed in refined baroque and renaissance style, grandiose architecture make the town unique. There are exactly eleven churches and chapels, eleven towers and eleven fountains.
In 1930 the factory became the property of the local authorities, who later handed it over. The region’s first watchmaker school came into existence, where the most eminent prentice applied to. Many generations of watchmakers were trained here, and then in 1972 the building was nationalized. This resulted in several renovations, to be in harmony with the dynamic and rapid changes of the age, and to continuously comply with all expectations and demands.
At the turn of the 21st century, in 2005 the factory was redesigned and renovated, to be adept with the watchmaking needs. They also formed the rooms so that they would be ideal for the manufacturing process.
The designers, watchmakers, quality inspectors and other specialists work on the Karl Breitner timepieces, on no less than four floors, with great devotion and audacity.
Karl Breitner factory still keeps and invigorates the old building’s spirit with a nearly one century old watchmaking past, combining the deeply respected tradition and the refined technology. By this interception, respectively the manual watchmaking, the owners of the Karl Breitner timepieces receive a unique piece of this historical horology world, to accompany them on their wrists.
Collection
- Elegance: Ultra slim mechanical watches for men with classic style, charm and elegance
- Gentle: Men’s High precision Quartz watches with robust design
- Gentle II: High precision quartz chronograph watches for men
- Colonel : Well designed and Classical automatic timepieces.
- Aviator: High grade Pilot watches equipped with world’s most famous automatic ETA Valjoux 7750 movement
- Admiral: Classically designed mechanical timepieces with excellence and the very detailed fine finishing features.
Featured Timepieces
Official website: http://www.karlbreitner.com
