Is there another famous watch dude in the making? This week, Austin Butler tried to subtly make his way through JFK without being paparazzi’d to death by the media and its watch-affiliated underlings.
Nice try, Butler!
Friend of GQ Brynn Walner (@dimepiece) alerted our attention to the actor’s presence at JFK airport via a post to her world-renowned Instagram account: “@austinbutler nailing the ‘lowkey celeb guy at the airport’ looque in a Breitling Chronomat, which he’s showing off just so perfectly you’d think this is a paid placement!” We can’t disagree: With the exception of Will Ferell, no other celeb has successfully pulled off a subtle extension of the watch-laden wrist with this particular degree of casual proficiency.
Adrian Edwards
Butler’s perfectly positioned watch is a Breitling Chronomat B01 42. We can get behind the choice of the objectively cool Chronomat, a mechanical bet placed in a quartz-powered casino: The battery-powered revolution of the 1970s had been tough on Breitling, and aging company scion Willy Breitling sold his firm to aviation enthusiast Ernest Schneider in 1979. After leaning into the quartz-dominated zeitgeist, Schneider boldly introduced the Chronomast line as a mechanically-powered centenary celebration. (Breitling was founded in 1884.) The bet paid off, signaling the brand’s return to its origins.
The Chronomat line is a large collection, and Breitling seems keen on expanding it. (Victoria Beckham’s Chronomat Automatic 36 from earlier this year was particularly fetching.) Butler’s version, the Chronomat B01 42, reminds one of early 2000s Breitling, with a large, in-your-face case, a popular “panda” dial with black totalizers against a silver background, and a matching steel bracelet with cool “Rouleaux” links.
The triple-register chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counters is powered by Breitling’s own B01 chronograph movement—a COSC-certified, automatic, in-house engine introduced in 2009 that delivers 70 hours of power reserve. The Chronomat also features integrated-bracelet looks—the bracelet isn’t actually integrated like the Gerald Genta’s star children, the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak—but the feel enables this design to hang out on the fringes of the white-hot “luxury sports watch” crowd.
The B01 is an underappreciated choice in an industry full of killer panda chronographs. There was clearly a chronograph-sized hole in Butler’s collection, which includes a black-dial Cartier Tank Must and a Rolex Datejust, and it’s refreshing to see a celeb take the Breitling route. Now we’re only left wondering one thing: What other watches does this dude have hiding up his sleeves?
