The Quirky Backstory. The Quirky Backstory. The Quirky Backstory. The Quirky Backstory. The Quirky Backstory
Breitling Emergency. Breitling Emergency. Breitling Emergency. Breitling Emergency
27 October 2026
The Quirky Backstory Of The Breitling Emergency
A watch designed to tell the time is useful. A watch designed to call for rescue is something else entirely.
Nearly a decade of development followed. Working with Dassault Electronique, Breitling managed to squeeze an Emergency Locator Transmitter into a 43mm titanium watch, and in 1995, the Emergency was born.
Hidden inside its chunky case was its party trick. Unscrew the safety cap and deploy the antenna, and the watch could broadcast a distress signal on 121.5 MHz, the international aviation emergency frequency, allowing rescuers to home in on its wearer.
And this wasn't just marketing. In 1997, an Emergency helped save the 13 crew members of the Mata-Rangi, a reed boat that had been blown off course by a storm off the coast of Chile.
Two years later, the watch went even further. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones wore Emergencies aboard Breitling Orbiter 3 when they completed the first non-stop circumnavigation of the Earth by balloon in 1999. The adventure later inspired a limited Orbiter 3 edition — complete with the balloon proudly displayed on its dial.
Over the years, the Emergency appeared in everything from bright yellow and orange to military editions and even extravagant diamond-set examples. But beneath the very 1990s ana-digi aesthetic remained a genuinely serious rescue instrument.
Breitling eventually took the concept even further with the Emergency II, adding a satellite-compatible 406 MHz signal alongside the original 121.5 MHz homing frequency.
A watch with an antenna, a radio transmitter and a history of actual rescues.
