Buy Breitling Emergency 2

Emergency beacons are great insurance for aviators and sailors, but they aren't worth much if a disaster leaves you in one place and the beacon in another. Just to be safe, you might as well strap the beacon to your wrist, which is what the Breitling Emergency II does. The Swiss-made wrist chronograph watch provides those who travel in remote, risky places with a dual-channel emergency satellite transmitter that activates with a twist and a yank.

buy breitling emergency 2

This weight comes from not only the massive titanium case, but also because that case holds a PLB Category 2 beacon micro-transmitter. This in itself required a lot of R&D to squeeze the electronics into even a watch the size of a doorstop. It also has to work for 24 hours, so that means a bespoke battery that can not only punch out enough power for a satellite to pick up, but that can also be recharged regularly, so that power will actually be there in an emergency.

The story began with Ernest Schneider, the man who acquired Breitling in 1979 when it was on the verge of collapse, and kept it afloat during the quartz crisis, thanks to a new generation of iconic Breitling models. An officer with the Swiss Army signal corps during World War II as well as a passionate pilot and engineer, he was involved in discussions at a NATO conference in the mid-1980s about emergency beacons and the high incidence of false activations that cost the relevant authorities significant time and money. It was at these talks that the idea of a watch with a personal locator beacon was born. Following the meeting, Breitling began working with Dassault Electronique to create reliable beacon technology that could be built into a wristwatch, and after a decade of development, the Breitling Emergency was announced.

Released in 1995, the Emergency featured a beacon that, when activated, transmitted a signal on the international distress frequency of 121.5MHz (for owners in the military, the microtransmitter was changed to operate on the military distress band). This transmission could be received up to 167km away and was directional, allowing authorities to locate the beacon with great accuracy. Initially, the Emergency was available only to licensed pilots, but eventually the titanium watch was offered to the general public once a document was signed acknowledging their responsibilities in paying for rescue attempts in the event of a false alarm. Some military units even gifted the watches to their pilots as an unofficial insurance policy, with unconfirmed reports that the Emergency complemented official beacon systems and contributed to successful rescue missions. Meanwhile, if the transmitter was utilised during a true emergency situation, Breitling offered to replace the watch at no charge to the owner. 041b061a72