Breitling has updated several of its collections this year, including the Superocean, which sees the addition of the Superocean II, and the Breitling for Bentley series, which has a new GMT watch. The Galactic collection too, welcomes a new member this year – the Unitime Sleekt.

The Galactic Unitime SleekT’s standout feature is its new in-house B35 calibre, which is the first from the brand not to have a chronograph function. Instead, the movement features a worldtimer complication, with all adjustments made via the crown. To correct the watch when travelling to a different time zone, for example, the wearer needs only to pull out the crown and adjust the hour and minute hands to the new local time, and all other dial indications will follow. The B35 achieves this via two patented improvements to the differential system, and the connection between the movement and the city disc. Like all Breitling movements, the B35 is a certified chronometer.

As a worldtimer, the Galactic Unitime SleekT is the sort of watch that needs to stand up to the rigours of frequent travel. Enter tungsten carbide. With approximately twice the stiffness and five times the hardness of steel, this material has applications ranging from cutting tools to armour-piercing rounds. It is, however, around twice as dense as steel, which corresponds to double the weight for any given volume. To reap tungsten carbide’s benefits of hardness and stiffness while minimising its heft, Breitling has fashioned just the bezel from it. The watch’s most vulnerable part is thus well protected without adversely affecting its weight. Aesthetically, the tungsten carbide bezel’s shade of grey also provides a contrast to the polished steel case.

Although the subject of aviation-themed timepieces often bring to mind pilot and navigator watches, one of which is the Navitimer, air travel also often entails the crossing of (multiple) time zones, which spurred the development of GMT and worldtimer complications. Breitling’s Galactic Unitime SleekT is a functional take on the latter that doesn’t scrimp on class thanks to its features: a highly legible city ring, a 24-hour ring with day and night indication, simple hands and indexes, and a filigree-worked image of the world map (a mainstay of many worldtimers). The watch will be available in two references, one with the dial and city ring in black, and another in white.