The new 48"12 chronograph, in a limited edition of 500 numbered pieces, is the result of a collaboration between Breil and its ambassador Filippo Magnini. Through a four-handed work, which started from an idea of the former Olympic swimming champion, the first design and the first prototype of a model named after the time with which Magnini won the gold medal in the 100 freestyle in 2005 at the Montreal World Championships with a time of 48"12, becoming world champion. "If my dream has always been to win the world championships, I have now crowned another," says Magnini: "the creation of a watch of my own that would take me back to the pool and let me relive the exact moment of victory in such a difficult race as the 100 metres freestyle, which no Italian before me, and even today, has managed to conquer. To bring this project to fruition, we went through a series of tests together with Breil - from the choice of design to that of the dial and materials to be used - with an infinite number of sketches that I keep at home as background to this work. With Breil, it's a bit like winning our own world championship".
The watch features a 45 mm steel case with a blue IP finish, inspired by the colour of Olympic swimming pools, and a fibreglass dial displaying a wave motif, an obvious reference to water, with a flange in two shades of blue that pays homage to the 48"12 time. "With Filippo," explains Marcello Binda, CEO of Binda Italia Srl, the company that owns the Breil brand, "we agreed to have a very iconic object born from the design and style of the New One, our main collection, and redesigned according to the themes that best represent a champion like Magnini.
Hence the choice of a shade of blue that represented the colour of the swimming pool more than any other: a blue that is not too dark, but iridescent just like the water and especially like the colour of the pool. Nor was the choice of fibreglass for the dial random, whose texture closely resembles that of the blue and black tiles of swimming pools.
The beating heart of the watch, which is guaranteed water-resistant to a depth of 100 metres, is a quartz movement, Miyota calibre YM82, which is highly efficient at measuring hundredths of a second, and completely new for a Breil watch. "We needed a movement that would best represent the record set by Filippo with his historic feat," says Marcello Binda, "and that would take into account the hundredths of a second on which the difference in many sporting competitions is played out: the choice fell on a very special Miyota movement that brings us to a high level of product refinement.
Finally, we have Filippo's signature on the case back and a soft rubber strap. The end result is a product that is very technical on the one hand and aesthetically very beautiful on the other, capable of conveying that emotion stemming from passion, values that have permeated the activity of this company and this brand from that 'Take it all away' of the 1990s to the 'Untouchable Spirit' of today". The Breil 48"12 chronograph is on sale for €329.
