When you think of Breitling, aviation immediately comes to mind. Indeed, even before launching the iconic Navitimer in the early 1950s, the brand provided essential navigation tools to pilots, which were found in particular in the cockpits of the British RAF. As a result, Breitling’s contribution to the world of diving watches is often and unfairly overlooked. Yet in 1957, the house introduced the SuperOcean, a diver responding to the growing demand for perfectly waterproof watches that had led Blancpain and Rolex to create the Fifty Fathoms and the Submariner a few years earlier.
Continuing its history that smells of sea spray, Breitling recently announced the arrival in its “Squad”, of a new ambassador ideally suited to take to the open sea. Indeed, Marie Tabarly does not come from nowhere. At 38, the daughter of legendary sailor Éric Tabarly – who disappeared in the Irish Sea on June 13, 1998 – is also, in addition to her activity as an equine behaviorist, an experienced skipper. On September 10, she will also leave the horses aside to take part in the Ocean Globe Race 2023, a crewed course of 27,000 miles around the world with four stages via the South Seas and by the three capes.
To take up this major challenge, Marie Tabarly will embark, 50 years after her father, aboard Pen Duick VI. This large black ketch, made of aluminum, was designed for the first Whitbread in 1973. It is characterized by its large mast culminating at 25 meters and carrying spinnakers of 350 m2, which gives it power, speed and balance.
And in order to keep her feet on the ground, the daughter of the double winner of the English Transat will naturally be equipped with a Breitling SuperOcean Héritage watch. This beautiful operation by the watchmaker is a nice nod to its past if we remember that in the 1980s, the latter had dedicated a collection of watches to Éric Tabarly, including an astonishing quartz Duograph equipped with a UTC module for displaying a second time zone. “I always saw my father with his Breitling on his wrist. I only knew him with this one. Besides, I still have his watch which is very dear to me and which has always been maintained by the house,” concludes Marie Tabarly.