AT NIGHT MISSION

Breitling has relaunched the Avenger collection and sharpened its profile. The new pilots' series brings fresh new chronographs into the picture, along with an automatic and a GMT version. And now, the Breitling in-house Caliber 01 makes its appearance in a slightly smaller fuselage. Our test shows what the new Avenger B01 Chronograph 'Night Mission' version has to offer.

- Martina Richter

The new Breitling Avenger pilots' watches feature three (strictly speaking, four) different models: The 42mm Automatic, the 44mm Automatic GMT, and the 44mm Chronograph in two versionsstainless steel and ceramic.

The ceramic chronograph, known fittingly as the 'Night Mission, has hit the ground running with two dial variants: Carbon black with black subdials, or yellow with strongly contrasting black subdial counters. This version, the bold and casual Avenger B01 Chronograph 44 Night Mission, our test watch, spent time with our editorial staff.

Slightly smaller than the Avenger Chronograph Hurricane 45, which came on the market in 2016 and has some things in common with this model, the new version closely follows the path set out by its predecessor in 2019.

The Avenger collection is still young. Even though Breitling's connection to aviation goes back to the 1930s, the Avenger line only began in 2001, making it Breitling's latest collection. In some ways, its design can be traced back to the Chronomat, which was introduced in 1984. But there were also elements of the Colt in the relaunch of the Avenger in 2019.

The encompasses a number of different models and variants, including the Seawolf and the popular Avenger II, the Super Avenger II, the Avenger Blackbird made of titanium with DLC coating, the Avenger GMT, and the previously Avenger line mentioned Avenger Hurricane 45. The Caliber 12, an iteration of Breitling's in-house Caliber 01, was used in this variant.