Breitling Adds the Hand-Wound Navitimer B09 and B02 Cosmonaute to Its Core Collection

The Breitling Navitimer B09 and B02 Cosmonaute chronographs, announced on October 22, 2026, put two hand-wound Navitimers into Breitling’s permanent core collection for the first time in the brand’s modern history. Both measure 41mm in stainless steel, both carry the Twin Jet logo of the 1960s, and neither is a limited or commemorative release.

The Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 is the first core-collection Navitimer powered by the manual-wind Caliber B09, a movement Breitling had saved until now for limited editions like the Navitimer Tribute to Miles Davis. The Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute pairs the 24-hour Caliber B02 with the design Scott Carpenter wore into orbit in 1962.

The Breitling Navitimer B09 and B02 Cosmonaute

The Navitimer arrived in 1952 as a pilot’s instrument, a chronograph with a circular slide rule that let aviators run calculations with a turn of the bezel. A decade later, at the request of NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter, Willy Breitling adapted it for space. When Carpenter wore it on his Mercury-Atlas 7 orbital flight on May 24, 1962, the Cosmonaute became the first Swiss wristwatch in space.

The 24-hour display is the whole reason the Cosmonaute exists. The hour hand makes one rotation a day, a practical answer to time in orbit, where day and night lose their usual meaning. The date sits inside the lower subdial in a matching color, so the black dial with its white counters stays symmetrical, and the Twin Jet logo stands out in gold.

Inside is the Breitling Manufacture Caliber B02, a hand-wound, COSC-certified chronograph movement used only in the Cosmonaute. It has 273 components, beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour, and holds approximately 70 hours of power, with a column wheel, a vertical clutch, and 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers. The movement is on view through a screwed sapphire caseback.

The B09 takes its cue from a different 1960s wrist: the Navitimer worn by racing drivers Jim Clark and Graham Hill, who were pilots too and understood the value of a slide rule and chronograph on the track. Its reverse-panda dial comes in black or blue with white subdials and a white rehaut. Where the two-tone green Navitimer pair for Watches of Switzerland [VERIFY: internal link live] went gold and green, this one sticks to steel, black, blue, and white, and I like it better for the restraint.

Manual Winding for the Core Collection

Before Breitling introduced automatic chronographs in 1969, winding a chronograph was part of the morning routine. The B09 returns that ritual to the everyday range. Dropping the date and using a manual-wind caliber lets the case run slimmer, and with its 41mm diameter the watch has the proportions of the historic originals. In my view, those proportions are the strongest argument for it.

The Breitling Manufacture Caliber B09 has 244 components, beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour, and runs for approximately 70 hours. Both models share a 13mm-thick case, a 47.09mm lug-to-lug length, a bidirectional slide-rule bezel, a cambered sapphire crystal glare-proofed on both sides, and water resistance to 30 meters. Each is COSC-certified.

“The B09 brings the look and feel of the classic 1960s Navitimer into the modern collection, and the Cosmonaute tells the story of how the Navitimer went from the cockpit to space,” says Georges Kern, CEO of House of Brands. Jean-Marc Pontroué, CEO of Breitling, describes the Cosmonaute as “a watch with an incredible history, but we don’t see it as something that belongs only to the past.”

The black B09 comes on a brown gradient calf-leather strap and the blue on a blue gradient strap, each with a folding clasp, or on a seven-row steel bracelet. The Cosmonaute offers the brown strap or the bracelet. Prices listed on Breitling’s website are $7,900 on strap and $8,400 on bracelet for the B09, and $10,600 and $11,000 for the Cosmonaute [VERIFY: Cosmonaute US availability date; breitling.com shows “Notify me”].

Timely FAQs

Adrienne Faurote

Editor in Chief · Haute Time

As a former New Yorker, now a “Miamian,” Adrienne Faurote joined Haute Living in August of 2021. She currently serves as the Haute Media Group Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial platforms within the Haute Media Group while also maintaining her role as Fashion, Jewelry & Watch Director. Prior to her position at Haute Living, Faurote was the Market Editor at Marie Claire Magazine US, amassing over ten years in the industry, becoming an authoritative voice in all things fashion, jewelry, and watches.