The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I found something here, http://www.swisstime.ch/baselworld/NL/P ... Screen.pdf

It is a big folder about breitling history, released together with the 125th anniversary of the brand.

It contains numerous pictures of advertisment and historical watches. And as you follow the timeline you see a shift in colors from the 40's to the 50's and on. In the 40's they used more cars in their advertisment and was official timekeeper of many races, the colors used were orange-brownish and dark, much like todays "Breitling for bentley" colors! coincidence???


But as soon as they launched the Navitimer, together with AOPA, and started supplying all major airlines with their watches inside the cockpit, they started using the yellow color and since then it has stayed! but why yellow???

I don't know if it is a factor, but all taxiway intersection signs are black letters on a yellow background while runway intersection signs are white on a red background. Typically, other signs for aircraft movement areas, ramps, transient parking, etc are also black on yellow.

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

Try approaching it from a new angle. Not design but print technology.

In a world still recovering from the ravages of war, development of colour print technology was not a great priority. Full colour half-tone was not an option for the brochures! My guess, and purely a guess, is that the most widely available options for colour printing were cyan, magenta and yellow.

The yellow/black colour scheme does match warning signs at airports and whilst today's brand psychologists would no doubt warn against the negative connotations, the world was a much simpler place in the 1950s and it probably just struck them as being a good idea.

Or maybe Herr Breitling owned a yellow Lamborghini?

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For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/fakes.html

Could it be as simple as the designers thought it looked good?

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"It's not how it's written it's how it's read"

I have the definite answer from Breitling!

I got a hold of the e-mail address of a person at Breitling who was responsible for their media publications such as advertisement and so on and asked this question and I got a definite answer back, and Sharkmouth, you had it spot on! Read:

Dear Alexander,

We thank you for your e-mail and interest in our brand.
Concerning the yellow color used for Breitling, this was chosen due to the following:
In the early 50s’, Willy Breitling started working with Caspari communication agency to do color adverts.

At that time, it was very expensive to do multi-colored adverts and Breitling therefore had to find a single background color onto which black would come out well and be readable.

After having checked the colors available, they decided on a yellow background, as black ink was best readable on that color.
Hoping to have answered your question.

With best regards,
BREITLING SA

So you see it actually was just a printing question and that it was the best and cheapest option at the time, does seem like a bit of a dissapointment after all the speculations above, but I am at least relieved I got a definite answer, hope you are too.

Thank you all for helping me in this matter!

If you want to help me even more, please go to http://www.watch-survey.tk and fill out a couple of question about Breitling Design for my research. and tell your friends, I am trying to see what the customer's perception is on the design of the famous Navitimer.

And again thanks everybody!
/Alexander

Wow. A definitive answer. Very good research effort Dramo!!!
Kudos to Sharkmouth for getting it right.
Very interesting topic guys!

Survey completed.

Very Interesting Indeed - I Enjoyed This Thread Very Much & Partook In Your Survey!

Good Luck With Your Project!


Best Regards,

Enezdez

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IWC - Big Pilot 5002 - 01
IWC - Pilot Chrono 3717 - 04
Panerai - 183
Omega - Speedmaster 145.012 / 67
Rolex - Explore II (Black Dial) - 216570
Rolex - Explore I 114270
Blancpain FF 5015

That's great news!

I have to say I'm surprised Breitling got back to you at all, never mind so quickly. They don't have the greatest reputation for responding to email enquiries.

Coming from a marketing background, this question intrigued me and I'm glad I reached the right answer but the real kudos should go to my design mentor, Joe Howe, who served his apprenticeship in the 60s and taught me the old school basics.

So, question resolved within 24 hours. Glad we were able to help you out and all the best for your career.

Survey completed but I suggest you open a separate thread on here to capture more replies.

Sharky

_________________

For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/fakes.html

Yes you're right, I think I was very lucky to reach the right person, this question cannot be answered by looking for it on google or in books, (trust me I have tried!) it's something they seem to not shout about.

Many brands today market themselves with Visual cues that will make us recognize them. Some cues are related to their actual brand such as the Breitling "Winged B" logo which relates to their aviation heritage, and some visual cues are just kept because of marketing decisions, or in this case because it was the most practical color to print black text on at that time. However they rarely admit that these cues are "accidental"

Consistency is of great importance when creating a strong brand, and Breitling is a good example of this, since they have used this yellow color for almost 60 years without it being considered as unmodern, or old-fashioned. It is a great accomplishment.

And yes the survey has its own thread right now on the Breitling discussion forum se link:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13051

I will upload our research result on this forum when everything is done, (supposed to be sometime in November).

Meanwhile I will be thinking of other interesting questions to ask you!