The smartwatch is the smartphone’s slave, but Breitling, maker of some very fine timepieces, didn’t think that was the right way to do things. For its connected watch debut, the superbly monikered Exospace B55, it has reversed the roles and made the phone the slave of the watch.
By connecting Breitling’s Exospace watch to a phone, you’re making it easier to use the watch’s features and functions, not making it an extension of the phone’s functionality. The accompanying app has controls that make it more intuitive to alter key settings, such as adjusting the time, time zone, alarms, or activating the night mode.
Breitling is promoting the watch to pilots, or those who one day dream of being a pilot at least, and messing around with little buttons and dials while cruising at 10,000 feet isn’t ideal — but tapping out a few commands on a massive touchscreen is far more realistic. Additionally, data collected by the watch, such as flight time and lap times, can be transferred to the app, cataloged, and shared.
There are two LCD screens on the Exospace B55’s face which not only display chronograph and tachymeter information, but also notifications from your phone — Breitling acknowledges information should go both ways — showing emails, messages, Whatsapp notifications, call details, and calendar reminders. A backlight is activated using the crown, or with a simple wrist gesture.
Made from black titanium, the Exospace B55 has a 46mm diameter case, a sapphire crystal face, weighs 80 grams, is water resistant to 100-meters, and comes with a very cool looking TwinPro rubber strap. Breitlng’s SuperQuartz movement keeps time, and it uses Bluetooth to sync with your phone, with the battery expected to last a couple of months before a recharge is needed. The price? It’s quite expensive by smartwatch standards at $8,900, but pretty average for Breitling’s standards.
