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The Breitling Emergency watch from a Professional collection has one distinctive feature that truly separates it from all the other types of watches. It has an emergency micro transmitter for civil aviation, which broadcasts on the 121.5 MHz aircraft emergency frequency.
After incidents, such as crash or forced landing, the Breitling Emergency watch can send a signal, which can help rescuers to locate people in distress and which serves as a complement to aircraft emergency equipment.
This distress beacon is activated by unscrewing a protective cap and pulling the antenna. It will commence the emergency broadcast that will last for 48 hours. This signal can be registered from up to 100 miles over calm seas or flat terrain (160 kilometers) from aircrafts flying at about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters).
This kind of feature was especially helpful for two British pilots, Squadron Leader Steve Brooks and Flight Hugh Quentin Smith. Their helicopter crashed in Antarctica and they were rescued after activating distress beacon on their Breitling Professional Emergency watches. The rescuers were able to home on two (un)fortunate pilots in their lifeboat solely because of this special feature that Emergency timepieces possess.
A Watch with an Agreement
This type of watch is also available for all interested parties that do not have a pilot’s license. However, there is one catch. All the customers who want to purchase Breitling Emergency have to sign an agreement, in which they state that they will pay full costs of a rescue mission, if they trigger the distress beacon.
This model is of Breitling 76 Caliber, it has SuperQuartz movement, thermocompensated quartz electronic, analog and LCD digital display and EOL indicator. It has a titanium case and a professional bracelet and it can withstand water pressure up to 3 bars (30 meters deep), with a transmitter in operation.
Man vs. Wild
Its bezel is bidirectional, with a compass scale and it also has non screw-locked crown with two gaskets and integrated pushpiece. This watch has a rather large face (43 millimeters in diameter) and weighs 84.6 grams.
Breitling Professional Emergency watch also has complications, like a perpetual calendar, a chronograph and an alarm. Its battery lasts for about 3 to 4 years, and every owner should be aware of the fact that the battery changes are supposed to be performed by the authorized services, since the procedure is complicated.
Breitling Emergency Professional watches are also available with black, blue, yellow or coral dials. This type of Breitling timepieces was worn by Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones, both members of Breitling Orbiter 3 – the first balloon to fly around the world non-stop. One of the most famous people who uses the Breitling Emergency watch is Bear Grylls (he uses the one with a yellow face and a rubber strap) in the episodes of popular television show Man vs. Wild.
How much do I have to pay for rescue mission? It would be real phat to have this watch. If it’s good for that crazy dude Bear Gryllz, it’s good for me 2! The one with blue dial is coolest of em all.
How much do I have to pay for rescue? Ooo, thanks anyway, I would rather stay under the rock
This is a cool watch and if I had the money I would buy it, but not because it was a personal locator beacon (PLB). I believe that the search and rescue system stopped receiving this frequency 2 years ago and only picks up 406 band transmissions. Rescuers would have to be already looking for you to know to home in on this frequency, I also hope that they would not charge you for a real emergency.. Get this because you like the watch and not as a PLB. A PLB cost $250-400 dollars and transmits 406 and 121 bands and also GPS info and you do not need to sign an agreement. Of course a PLB will not tell you the time, nor does it look cool attached to your wrist.