When go-getting businessman Georges Kern took over as CEO of Breitling six years ago, one of the sweeping changes he introduced was to dispense with the idea of brand ambassadors.
In place of a single celebrity promoting the watch brand, or a line of watches, Kern came up with the idea of ‘squads’.
Depending on the demographic he hoped to reach, Kern’s watches would be promoted with a group of men and women, who both individually and together seemed to sum up the ethos of a particular line. They shared a hashtag #squadonamission.
Since then there’s been no shortage of squad announcements. We have met the Cinema Squad (Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Adam Driver), the Aviation Pioneer Squad (Astronaut Scott Kelly, fighter pilot Roccio González Torres, drone-pilot champion Luke Bannister), the All-Star Squad (basketball’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, snowboarding’s Chloe Kim, football’s Erling Haaland and Trevor Lawrence) and The Surfer Squad (Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons), to name a few.
It was perhaps only a matter of time before Breitling announced an actual squad squad – or at least something near enough.
In January the brand revealed it had become the official timing partner of the Six Nations rugby, a deal that also includes the Women’s Six Nations and the Autumn Nations Series – with appropriate stars of the sport attached.
Now there’s a set of six “extremely limited” watches to commemorate that partnership.
The new models are versions of the brand’s Chronomat, a chronograph launched in 1984 as part of the company’s 100th anniversary celebrations and reintroduced in 2020. It is identifiable by its ‘rider tabs’ at 3,6 and 9 o’clock, its outsized crown and its linked ‘rouleaux’ bracelet.
The dials are white (for England), burgundy (Wales), dark blue (Scotland), green (Ireland), light blue (Italy) and blue and white (France).
They are being launched with the announcement of the seven-strong Breitling Rugby Squad. It comprises winger George North representing Wales, Conor Murray, the scrum-half for Ireland, England prop Kyle Sinckler, Italy’s fly-half Paolo Garbisi, Scotland’s Hamish Watson and Stuart Hogg and France’s Gaël Fickou. .
“At the heart of the rugby spirit is a fearless, no-limits state of mind that Breitling’s watches are the perfect accompaniment to,” says Georges Kern.
An actual #squadonamission, then.
Johnny Davis is the Style Director of Esquire. He was previously editor of the influential British magazine The Face.