This rose gold Breitling Premier B01 Chronograph is a thing of beauty

Breitling has announced six new watches to join its Premier collection of heritage-inspired chronograph watches.

These new watches are available with dials finished in black, green, blue, salmon and cream, with cases made of stainless steel. But the model we’re most interested in features a classic cream dial and a solid 18K rose gold case (pictured above), available with brown alligator leather strap or metal bracelet.

All versions of the Premier B01 Chronograph 42 are driven by Breitling’s own Manufacturer Calibre 01 automatic movement, with 70 hours of power reserve and visible through the transparent sapphire crystal of the screw-down caseback.

Going for a vintage aesthetic, the Premier B01 has a 42mm case with a smooth, fixed bezel, streamlined rectangular pushers at the two and four o’clock positions, and a dial with two sub-dials for chronograph minutes and running seconds. A date complication sits at the six o’clock position and water resistance is 100 metres.

Breitling says how the watches are put through an in-house durability test designed to mimic 16 years of hard use. This includes approximately 60,000 shock tests subjecting the watches to 500 G, more than 100,000 winds of the crown, 3,456,000 turns of the movement weight, and 5,840 start-stop-reset cycles for the chronograph pushers.

As with other members of the Premier collection, we think these watches strike a nice balance between dress and sports timepieces and will likely appeal to those who prefer their watches to have a more subtle aesthetic than most of Breitling’s creations.

The launch of these watches coincides with the publication of a new book, called Premier Story. Written by Breitling historian Fred Mandelbaun, the book catalogues the work of Willy Breitling’s efforts in turning the chronograph from an aircraft cockpit readout to a wristwatch.

Prices start at £7,150 for a stainless steel case on a leather strap and rise to £7,400 when bought with a bracelet. The rose gold model on leather is £16,600, or £32,500 when bought with the matching bracelet.