IMO, quality wise, I would much rather have a Breitling. Top of the line to bottom, Breitling quality does not waver, that bracelet on the Air King is a joke. Made from leftovers from the Tinman.

As bad as some of the Rolex bracelets used to be, I'd take the bracelet on my SubC with the easy glide clasp any day of the week over what Breitling has to offer. I'm not knocking Breitling, but it's by far the most confortable bracelet I've ever owned.

I often wondered the same thing. Every used watch shop I poke my nose into in this part of the world has display cabinets full of Rolex and Panerai models of every variety at nearly retail prices.
Obviously the demand must be there else that would not be the case, despite Rolex pumping nearly a million new watches out to the market year after year in recent years.
Can't explain it though other than clever marketing strategy over the years that resulted in brand awareness across masses. As much as I like Breitling's aviation connection, it is limited to a niche target segment which results in significantly lower brand recognition and subsequently much lower demand from the masses, world wide at least.
Perhaps that is the reason why Breitling decided to broaden the target audience a bit and paid squilions to Beckham to be a brand ambassador end of last year. Was it the right move? That is a topic for another thread which I believe has been well covered here already