Getting into the watch manufacturing business in the mid-1880s was no easy feat. Switzerland was experiencing the worst part of a long recession. Yet, despite the economic difficulty, social unrest and uncertainty about the future, 24-year-old Léon Breitling stayed true to his vision of creating instruments that could measure, divide and master time.This is how the Breitling brand was born. With passion and enthusiasm, our inventive founder created the useful, functional, reliable and sturdy timepieces we’ve come to know and love today.
1884 - Léon Breitling opened his first atelier at Place Neuve 1, Saint-Imier. At this fabled address on one of the town’s lively squares, he began to dream up, develop and produce his iconic watches. His designs led to patented innovations that gave Breitling its esteemed place in watchmaking history.
1892 - With his increasing success, Léon Breitling decided to transform his workshop into a full-fledged watch factory. He moved operations to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the watchmaking capital of Switzerland, and of the world.
1893 - Breitling patented a movement with an astonishing power reserve of eight days. That year, he also introduced the pulsograph, for measuring a patient's pulse. The invention, featuring a logarithmic scale ideal for the task, became instantly prized by physicians.
1896 - Three years later, Breitling reached another major milestone: a chronograph with two-fifths of a second accuracy, unheard of at the time. Within a decade, the company had sold more than 100,000 chronographs and stopwatches.
