When entering the world of high-end horology and when watches come with frighteningly large price tags, it’s common to become a bit of a quartz snob. Despite the apparent advantages of battery-powered technology, we often turn our noses up at watches that are “only” quartz watches, as if the manufacturer couldn’t be bothered (or wasn’t able) to make their own mechanical movement, a movement which is obsolete anyway. One of the few exceptions to this rule, in my mind, is Breitling. They’ve made loads of quartz watches in recent years, and they’ve still been able to sell them as luxurious tool pieces, and today there’s a new one.
It’s called the Breitling Endurance Pro Replica, and it seems to be another sporty and masculine watch with an aggressive style and black case. All those things are undoubtedly true, but that’s no bad thing as the watch is visually attractive. If you like designs that appear to be military-inspired and just a little bit too fussy, I think you’ll like this. The coloured rubber straps match the pushers, crown and inner flange of the dial giving the watches a cohesive appearance. Unfortunately, that could also mean that changing the straps will lead to a clash of colours, but that’s a hill to climb when you get to it.
All the watches come in a 44mm x 12.5mm case made of a black composite material called Breitlight, which is a polymer made with carbon fibre for extra rigidity. Expect this to be a lot lighter and less noticeable than an all-steel sports watch. The rotating bezel of the watch features a compass engraving, allowing the watch to be useful out in the wilderness. There’s also a pulsation scale for the chronograph on the inner flange.
The chronograph can measure up to 12 hours via the subdials, which seem to be reasonably legible in the press photos. There’s also a date squeezed in between 4 and 5. Usually, I’d talk about how this unbalances the dial and isn’t necessary, but if you look at the chronograph subdials closely, you’ll see they all look slightly different anyway. Also, being that this is the go-anywhere sports watch from Breitling, having the date could be extremely useful.
As I’ve mentioned, inside the watch is a quartz movement, the SuperQuartz calibre 82 to be precise. It’s based on an ETA Thermoline movement. In the Breitling, it has a sensor that measures the ambient temperature. This is important for a quartz watch; the temperature determines the vibration frequency of the quartz crystal, and a temperature change will make it less accurate. This is similar to what we saw on the Longines Conquest VHP watches a few years ago, while we don’t have an exact figure for the accuracy of this watch it is a COSC-rated quartz chronometer.
Tough and durable watches are the kind of thing you would expect from a watchmaker like Breitling. What happens when that has already achieved? How do you push the proverbial limits on a heavy-duty watch?
Breitling did something similar to what the auto industry did, which is to start using newer and more innovative materials to either increase or keep the same strength while cutting down on the weight. Enter the new proprietary Breitlight case. A lightweight case made of an ultralight polymer that is not only scratch-resistant but also resistant to traction and corrosion. Just how light is this case? It’s over 3 times lighter than titanium and 5.8 times more lightweight compared to stainless steel. It is also hypoallergenic, thermally stable so it won’t overheat or freeze your wrist as metal watch cases do during temperature fluctuations, and it’s antimagnetic too.
The latest addition to the Breitling Professional collection of watches is the Breitling Endurance Pro Replica Quartz. It has a 44mm new and exclusive-to-Breitling Breitlight case bezel and smooth beveled lugs with a lug width of 22mm. A solid case back is fastened by four steel screws and has an engraved ‘Endurance Pro’ logo with a strikethrough effect located in the center of the case back.
While this watch does offer a 100 meters (10 bar or 330 feet) water resistance rating, it does not come with a screw-down crown and should not be used for any deep-sea diving. At most, it can be used for some light snorkeling, swimming, or showering as long as it’s only in cold water.
Quartz Chronometer for outstanding accuracy. Quartz movements are categorically more precise than any mechanical movement, but a COSC certified quartz caliber such as the one found in this new series is truly exceptional.
The Breitling Endurance Pro Replica has a bit of a fun side too. The series has five models as of now that feature the Diver Pro strap. A comfortably sporty rubber strap in one of five colors, including white, navy blue, bright red, competition yellow, and vivid orange. Each Diver Pro rubber strap has the Breitling wordmark embossed on it and comes with a pin buckle.
Each color variation has the same matching color used on the minute’s track, outline on the large numerals used for the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock hour marker, and color band on the crown and top chronograph pusher. Additionally, the dial flange is in the same matching color. You can measure your heart rate since it has a pulsometer scale printed on it in either white or black, depending on the model.
The black dial uses luminous hour markers and numerals. The partially skeletonized hour hand and minute hand are made of polished steel, and both are filled with Super-LumiNova, a glow-in-the-dark fill.
Black recessed sub-dials are used for the small second’s hand located at the 6 o’clock position on the dial as well as the chronograph sub-registers situated on the right and left of the dial. The chronograph sub-dials use red-tipped polished steel hands with a large red central seconds hand for the stopwatch seconds. The small running second’s subdial has a hand that is filled with luminous material. The indices and numerals on all the sub-dials are finely printed in a white lightweight sans-serif font.
The winged Breitling logo is applied at the 12 o’clock position with the wordmark and year established beneath in white print. Series branded can be found in the lower left-hand quadrant of the dial with the word ENDURANCE printed in all caps and framed by a fine white rectangular line. Opposite the series name on the right-hand side of the dial between 3 and 4 o’clock position is the word CHRONOMETER printed in white in all caps. A small date window can be found beneath it between the 4 and 5 o’clock position.
A two-directional rotating bezel has an engraved compass scale filled in white. The North, South, East, and West markers on the bezel use a large bold font. The Arabic numerals used for the 30-degree increments and index separators use a marginally smaller font.
The Breitling caliber 82 that powers this watch is a COSC certified Thermocompensated SuperQuartz. It is quite literally the stuff legends when it comes to battery-powered watch movements. According to Breitling, it is around ten times more accurate than your standard quartz movements.
