Breitling Emergency Officially Discontinued, two to three year wait for a replacement.

The revolutionary Brietling Emergency, wrist-watch which allowed Breitling even in the days of being a slightly so-so Aviation themed brand, before they started to make their own movements, and become known for their Bentley collaborations to be a go to for avid Watch lovers, has as of the 2011/2012 range been officially discontinued.

For all those not familiar with the model, it utilised a miracle of minaturisation, a tiny emergency transmitter manufactured by the French Radio maker Dassault, to compress a 121.5 mhz receiver within it's titanium shell, meaning that if ever in dire need, an owner could unscrew the side nodule, and pull out an antenna, which would allow search and rescue teams to be guided to his or her location.

True Watch Afficionados would tell, as we are here, that the death knell for this model was sounded way back in 2009, when the FAA and other agencies stopped the satelite monitoring of the 121.5 mhz frequency the transmitter used, following this, should a person ever be stranded, the frequency would only be monitored in the case of an actual search and rescue being mounted, rather than at all times, and even then not by ships, only air and ground crews, the new 406mhz digital frequency is the current worldwide Emergency standard, and although the old frequency still works, it is no longer as effective, so, after many years of consideration, Breitling, in a decision no doubt motivated by Dassault deciding not to make the transmitters any more, have discontinued the watch.

This is not the end of the Emergency line, merely an extended hiatus, a new model sporting a digital Emergency transmitter is in the R&D department of Breitling as we speak, although they are not expecting a saleable model until around 2015, all hope is not lost, and don't forget, 121.5mhz does still work during search and rescue.