In the continuing wave of vintage, the Aviator 8 collection reinterprets replica Breitling’s early pilot’s watches without simply copying them. In this in-depth review of our October 2020 issue, we observe how the latest Aviator 8 model, the B01 Chronograph Mosquito, keeps up with the trends in modern everyday life.
Just as gusts of wind sometimes transition into storms, the Breitling Aviator 8 family of timepieces has undergone many changes. The collection was launched in early 2018 as the Navitimer 8 and has since transformed into the Aviator 8, albeit without making much of a splash. The move now appears to be complete – the new collection reflects fake Breitling’s long history with aviation.
The “mushroom” chronograph pushers are also quite historic, as is the fluted crown, another Navitimer feature. The column wheel control gives the chronograph pushers a firm and very smooth pressure point. The screw-down replica Rolex is quite difficult to release and secure but is easy to pull out to a different operating position.
The fluted bi-directional rotating bezel turns smoothly and is quite different from the Navitimer, with a smooth downward sloping top, white hour markers and numerals, and red reference points. The grooved section continues the sharp conical downward slope, in contrast to the Navitimer, where the raised section is not exactly parallel to the grooves. the Mosquito bezel ring is also coated with ADLC, which, unlike the more anthracite-colored DLC coating used by Breitling for many years, turns a deep, dark black.
A striking hand showing the main time in an orange frame dominates the top of the dial. The same color is repeated on the small hand of the best replica watch function and on the tip of the central stopwatch’s second hand.
The minute track on the edge of the dial is based on the original reference 634, with triangular markers pointing inwards every five minutes, extended lines for minutes, and thinner line markers for fractions of a second. The three silvered sub-dials and the numbering on the bezel can also be found in these early models.
