Breitling and Aston Martin have reunited for a new Top Time chronograph honouring the DB5, the car worn on-screen by Sean Connery in Bond’s Thunderball.
Breitling and Aston Martin have joined forces to relaunch the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 as a tribute to the Aston Martin DB5, the car that helped define both British automotive design and a defining moment in watch history.
Homage to an Auto Icon
The DB5 became a cultural icon after its 1963 debut, but its most famous appearance came two years later in Thunderball, where it appeared alongside a Breitling Top Time ref. 2002 on Sean Connery’s wrist. That pairing marked the first Q-modified watch in the James Bond franchise and cemented an early link between the two brands’ design sensibilities.
The new collection reinterprets that moment through materials pulled directly from the DB5’s cabin. Wood-inlaid detailing, hand-colored gradient leather straps, and dial work echo the car’s interiors, while the case borrows the cushion shape, grooved corners, and mushroom pushers of the original 1960s chronograph. The chronograph’s “squircle” subdials are designed to resemble classic dashboard gauges, and a wooden inner ring nods to the DB5’s steering wheel.
Three Limited Editions
The collection comes in three versions, each with its own scale of rarity. The stainless steel version featuring a silver dial is limited to 1,022 pieces and is the closest in spirit to the original Top Time ref. 2002. For something a little ritzier, the steel and platinum edition with its black lacquered dial is limited to 315 pieces and pairs a platinum bezel with a high-gloss black dial for added contrast. Finally, the 18k red gold iteration, limited to 250 individually numbered pieces, features an onyx dial and marks Breitling’s first use of natural onyx on a dial.
Under the sapphire caseback, every version runs on the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified column-wheel chronograph movement with a vertical clutch and 70-hour power reserve. The rotor carries an Aston Martin engraving, finished in rhodium plating or 18k red gold depending on the edition.
