Breitling Crosswind

THE STORY

A Moment You Can Measure

Explore this scene

Explore this scene

Scenes imagined. Actual watch photographs are in Watch details.

There is a particular satisfaction in deciding exactly when a moment begins. Press a button, watch an interval unfold, then stop it. A chronograph makes a small ceremony of paying attention.

Breitling helped shape that familiar interaction. Its own history records Willy Breitling's 1933 patent for a second independent pusher, followed by industrial production the next year. Start, stop and reset became easier to separate, an idea that would outlast the world in which it was devised. Breitling, Era of Inventors

The Crosswind belongs to a much later chapter. Sotheby's places the Crosswind range within Breitling's Windrider family and dates its production to 1997–2004. That late-1990s and early-2000s setting matters: this is a mechanical instrument with a conspicuous presence, from a time recent enough to remember yet increasingly distinct in its design. Those range dates do not establish the production year of this particular example. Sotheby's Crosswind catalogue note

Imagine a late-1990s café before the morning rush. A coat hangs on the back of a chair, an espresso arrives, and there are a few unclaimed minutes before the day begins. The scene is imagined; no café, owner or journey is part of this watch's known provenance.

Balance of Time preserves this blue-dial Crosswind as a sold archive entry. Actual watch photograph The next step is simply to meet the real object in its photograph, with the history of the chronograph in mind. Balance of Time inventory 002

• Breitling, Era of Inventors
• Sotheby's Crosswind catalogue note
• Actual watch photograph
• Balance of Time inventory 002

The actual watch

Breitling Crosswind listed by Balance of Time.

BRAND Breitling

MODEL Crosswind

REFERENCE A13355 (catalog identification)

YEAR 2002 (catalog attribution; individual manufacture year unverified)

BOX & PAPERS NO

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