Urban Legend or True Story??
This yellow bastard is the Breitling Emergency and has saved 20 lives because of its ingenious PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) that resides in that growth you see below the dial!
The story goes in 1988 a NATO officer approached Breitling and asked if it was possible to combine a PLB with a watch. Breitling scratched their 80’s beards and went away.
They came back to the officer with an earlier version of yellow beauty you see pictured combing a 121.5Mhz beacon with a pilots watch. This was only issued to professionals at the time and then released it to the general public a year later.
As I said it has saved lives but I have heard another story regarding this. Is it an urban legend or true? It goes like this!
A man had recently purchased one of these and was one day bored sitting in his car in traffic. He noticed the beacon on his new watch and thought “I wonder what would happen if I pulled the beacon”? He did and……… well… nothing! Disappointed He put it back in and moved slowly forward. Then after about 20minutes he could hear a loud noise thinking it might be his car, he looked up and noticed a rescue helicopter above him with rescuers looking confused! That little stunt cost the man 100k in fines and expenses for the rescue chopper and rescuers!! Not sure if the story is true but the fine and expense cost most certainly is which is why Brietling get you to sign a waiver when you buy one!
I really want of these as they are pretty reasonable on the second hand market but I don’t trust my tithead mates or family members accidentally pulling it for a laugh!
How about you guys? Would you trust yourself with one?
Been watch collecting for about 5 years now, don’t necessarily follow the masses with trends, tend like the older style watches as they seem to have a bit more style to them! You do get some gems in t...
I would trust myself but they're massive chunky watches
Would rather own an aerospace. Similar look much more comfortable thinner watch
I would trust myself but they're massive chunky watches
Would rather own an aerospace. Similar look much more comfortable thinner watch
Yeah I’ve been looking at those a lot lately. Lovely watches. Not sure if I would get the Evo though as it is bigger then the older aerospace
I remember seeing it years ago in a Tourneau Corner and the salesmen said you had to sign some sort of contract/waiver to buy it
Yeah buying from an AD you have to sign the waiver. Not sure how it works when you buy it second hand!
I don't know if any of this is true or not but that's some awesome watch lore! Thanks for sharing.
I wouldn't bet against it
I was at the AD about 1 month ago and someone was asking about this Breitling. I was not paying much attention to the conversation until the man said that this watch had a built-in ELT. The AD said that the watch was discontinued.
Having a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) as you described it is a cool idea but having something that broadcast on 121.5 as an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) is not a good idea. ELT are installed in aircrafts and automatically starts broadcasting on impact.
121.5Mhz is monitored by the Military, Search and Rescue (SAR) and Air Traffic Control. The reception of an ELT signal at an air traffic control center generates a general alarm to indicate that a commercial aircraft has crashed. The military will contacts the Air Traffic Control to check on the disappearance of an aircraft from radar and also the aircraft type. SAR will get ready to launch planes to locate the beacon. Ambulance service in the general area will also get notified for them to get ready. So it sets the big machine in motion so I could see him being fined and also have to pay for the expenses of SAR.
Occasionally, an ELT can be activated by accident when an aircraft undergoes maintenance at an airport but in that case they know the location is an airport and they will call and ask them what is going on. A ground team will be dispatched to find in the hangar with the ELT broadcast.
https://skybrary.aero/articles/emergency-locator-transmitter-elt
I was at the AD about 1 month ago and someone was asking about this Breitling. I was not paying much attention to the conversation until the man said that this watch had a built-in ELT. The AD said that the watch was discontinued.
Having a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) as you described it is a cool idea but having something that broadcast on 121.5 as an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) is not a good idea. ELT are installed in aircrafts and automatically starts broadcasting on impact.
121.5Mhz is monitored by the Military, Search and Rescue (SAR) and Air Traffic Control. The reception of an ELT signal at an air traffic control center generates a general alarm to indicate that a commercial aircraft has crashed. The military will contacts the Air Traffic Control to check on the disappearance of an aircraft from radar and also the aircraft type. SAR will get ready to launch planes to locate the beacon. Ambulance service in the general area will also get notified for them to get ready. So it sets the big machine in motion so I could see him being fined and also have to pay for the expenses of SAR.
Occasionally, an ELT can be activated by accident when an aircraft undergoes maintenance at an airport but in that case they know the location is an airport and they will call and ask them what is going on. A ground team will be dispatched to find in the hangar with the ELT broadcast.
https://skybrary.aero/articles/emergency-locator-transmitter-elt
I believe the newer models work off 406mhz now but still use the 121.5mhz frequency as the analog backup!
That would be interesting to know if it was a legend or not.
I would love to see #breitling do a Bat signal version where it features the Batman logo and one of the rescuers is dressed as batman. 🤣