Triumph and Breitling have collaborated on a motorbike, and there’s a watch to wear with it

A few months ago, Breitling announced a new collaboration with Triumph Motorcycle and this is the first ‘child’ of their partnership: a chronograph called Top Time Triumph and a Triumph motorcycle to go with it.

The inspiration came from the ‘café racer’ culture of the 1960s, coming in with a beautiful shade of light blue for the dial, slightly ‘ovalised’ sub-dials for the chronograph complication and the inevitable racing-style leather strap.

Inside the 41 mm stainless steel case and under the ‘Zorro’ dial – a reference to the dual shade of colour which makes it look like the watch is wearing a mask around the sub-dials, kinda like Zorro – the Top Time Triumph houses Breitling’s self-winding cal. 23, a COSC-certified chronometer (accurate to +/-4 seconds a day) with a 48-hour power reserve.

The shade of blue they picked for the dial has a meaning and a very specific place in the history of the brand because it is the same polychromatic blue from the 1951 Triumph Thunderbird 6T, as ridden by Marlon Brando in the film ‘The Wild One’.

The same colour was also used for a Breitling Top Time (ref. 815) wristwatch from the 1970s, as well as for the brand-new, limited-edition Triumph Speed Twin Breitling motorcycle (270 units only), which is fitted with Breitling-designed RPM and speed gauges.

The bike is powered by Triumph’s 99-hp 1197cc ‘Vertical Twin’ engine with a 270-degree crank (hence the 270 units), which is also depicted on the caseback of the watch.

There’s a huge overlap between watch brands and automakers but for some reason the same thing can’t be said when it comes to motorcycle manufacturers.

Breitling is the perfect candidate to change the paradigm because they’ve been working with Bentley since 2002 and they know what works and what doesn’t when you mix wristwatches and motoring.

The watch is available now, priced at $5,500.