Breitling Reveals Life-Saving Emergency Timepiece Now Available for Purchase in U.S.
Breitling joined members of the media to celebrate the U.S. launch of the Emergency, a watch that literally saves lives. The watch is the first wrist-worn beacon with a dual Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) in the world. To mark the occasion, Breitling chose the iconic Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Complex in New York City to announce the timepiece’s availability in the U.S.
The watch, which recently gained FCC approval for sale in the U.S., features a PLB operating at 121.5 MHz and 406 MHz, thus meeting Cospas-Sarsat standards. The innovative dual frequency micro-transmitter is able to send a distress beacon to rescuers on land, ships at sea, and airborne aircraft through the 121.5 MHz frequency and satellite transmissions through the 406 MHz frequency.
“Breitling has a long history of providing timepieces for the most extreme missions,” Breitling USA President Thierry Prissert said. “So it is very exciting we get to continue this tradition with such a cutting edge timepiece. The original Emergency saved over 20 lives, and now that the new one is available in the U.S., I hope many adventurers will find it a key piece of equipment.”
“It is a pleasure to introduce the Breitling Emergency now that it is available in the U.S.,” said former astronaut Mark Kelly. “It is a safety instrument that offers the wearer an invaluable peace of mind, even if they never have to activate it.”
Developed specifically for the Emergency, the micro-transmitter had to be specially designed for such a compact application. Consequently, the Emergency’s transmitter holds the records for both miniaturization and reliability.
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Despite its complex nature, Breitling designed the Emergency to be especially simple to use. The ingenious dual antenna design, which is housed in the lower part of the watch, deploys when the cap attached to the main antenna on the right-hand side is unscrewed. Once the user extends it to the correct length, a second cap on the opposite side releases. This automatically activates the transmitter.
“Perhaps some of you have heard of the Breitling Emergency when it was introduced in Switzerland in 2013 and are wondering why it is just being announced in the U.S. now,” Prissert said. “Well, because a watch is so much smaller than a traditional locator beacon it took longer than anticipated to get approval from the FCC, but Breitling was able to satisfy the Commission that the Emergency can properly send alerts and the watch performed perfectly during their exhaustive testing.”
Such a technologically advanced wristwatch comes with unusual power demands that Breitling answered through a revolutionary rechargeable battery 1,000 times more powerful than the cells usually employed in a timepiece. In order to meet both the power and size demands, Breitling developed a new battery in collaboration with one of the cutting-edge institutes in this field.
The Emergency is not only a personal survival instrument. It is also an electronic chronograph featuring all the functions useful to professionals and adventurers: 12/24-hour analog and digital display, 1/100th second chronograph, alarm, timer, second time zone, multi-lingual calendar, and battery end-of-life indication. It is equipped with a thermo-compensated SuperQuartz™ movement, ten times more accurate than standard quartz and chronometer-certified by the COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute) – the highest industry benchmark in terms of precision and reliability. The “watch” and “transmitter” parts have been designed as two distinct elements, totally independent in terms of both operation and energy source and thus ensuring enhanced security.
Guests at the event had a chance to speak with Kelly, who famously wore Breitling chronographs during his voyages into space. They also had an opportunity to see the Emergency in person.
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