Breitling

Léon Breitling opened his workshop in Saint-Imier, in the Swiss Jura, in 1884 and made chronographs his speciality, and his grandson Willy's Navitimer of 1952, with a slide-rule bezel for calculating fuel and flight times, made Breitling the pilot's watch. The Schneider family revived the company in 1979; CVC Capital Partners bought it in 2017 and hired Georges Kern as chief executive, and Partners Group has held a majority since 2022. Breitling is based in Grenchen.