The DB12 S is not a car that lets you ease into things. Finished in retina-scorching Synapse Orange, with slightly swollen fenders, just-so proportions and a measured stance, it reinforces Aston Martin’s position as a brand that can do no design wrong, even when it’s being loud about it. The new S version of the DB12 takes the long-distance grand tourer and nudges it toward the sporty side: a tauter, quicker, louder version of its distance-gobbling self. A series of suspension updates sharpen the handling, while an incremental power boost to its AMG-sourced 4.0-liter V8 now squeezes out 690 horsepower. Standard carbon ceramic brakes save some 60 lbs of unsprung mass. The optional titanium exhaust sheds another 26. The combo of lighter weight and greater power drops 0 to 60 mph to 3.4 seconds.
On my wrist, a Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43. I pulled this silver-dialed example from the catalog for some quality time with two complicated machines. At $10,300, with a COSC-certified in-house movement and 70-hour reserve, it feels worth the money. The 43mm case sits solid on my 6.75-inch wrist but not so large as to be overstated. Design-wise, the silver dial falls more in line with Breitling’s original aesthetic than with unorthodoxies like the new rainbow dial variants or the curious Corvette, Mustang and Shelby Cobra Top Time B21 models, which run a cool $51,500. There are enough dial markers here to recall the glory days of the brand’s focused fixation on aviation and aerospace, touchpoints which recently received a priceless boost when all four Artemis II astronauts elected to wear new Breitling Cosmonautes at least once during the mission which made them the longest distance space travelers in history. The timepieces were worn in tribute to the custom Navitimer created for Scott Carpenter’s 1962 Mercury 7 mission. Both Carpenter’s one-off and the new Cosmonaute, which was released in a limited edition of 450, feature a special 24-hour dial to help distinguish day from night.
The Aston Martin/Breitling pairing is new. In February, the brands announced a global, multi-year partnership, leaving ex-partners like Bentley and Girard-Perregaux in the rearview. For Breitling, the alliance marks a shift. Following the brand’s acquisition by private equity in 2017, CEO Georges Kern steered away from macho aviation swagger toward more generalist upscale positioning, instituting an air/land/sea directive that sought a wider audience than flight-obsessed avgeeks. For Aston Martin, it’s a signal that the brand’s ambitions extend well beyond the road car business, which has been struggling, into Formula 1 and the broader luxury ecosystem. I’ll admit to some cognitive dissonance when I first caught wind of the union. It had been nearly five years since Breitling’s 19-year marriage to Bentley ended, and the psychic residue of that association is hard to shake. But here I am, in Malibu, with a Breitling on the wrist and an Aston Martin wrapped around the rest of me.
Climbing into the DB12 S doesn’t present a precise matchup between timepiece and cockpit. Sure, both are adorned with wing logos and hide (alligator, in the case of the watch strap). But the Aston’s guiding principles are a contradictory combination of reductionist forms and an exuberance of color thanks to the $11,200 interior tritone option, which alternates chevroned and perforated seating panels in orange, cream and navy. When all is said and done, the DB12 S doesn’t come cheap: starting at $272,000 and finishing at $400,300 after all options (including $23,100 in “Import Costs”) are added up, the Aston punches considerably higher than my borrowed Breitling, which costs less than that jaunty interior trim option. At least the caseback view of the timepiece’s movement feels special, offering levels of finish that would feel at home in anything this side of a hypercar.
There are few spots on the planet that beat Malibu’s lacy network of canyon roads for spirited driving, and the DB12 S feels more capable on these tightly knotted stretches of tarmac than you might expect. While the Vantage S can get downright pugilistic in its attack on decreasing-radius corners, the DB12 S comes across as dimensionally larger but nonetheless ready to rumble. Turn-in grip is excellent, and the larger car rotates better than its 2-ton curb weight suggests it should. The large knurled dial on the center console switches drive modes, producing appreciable differences in suspension stiffness and power delivery. As with all of the physical controls in the Aston, it clicks with satisfying heft.
While the Breitling’s deployant alligator strap echoes Aston’s old money appeal, the ornate markers and contrasting subdials feel more aligned with the pre-digital era when jeweled analog gauges ruled. Regardless, there’s a strong sense of occasion to canyon carving with a Navitimer on the wrist. While you’re unlikely to slide the counter-rotating bezel for slide rule calculations on the fly, the weight and technicality of Breitling’s analog design feels like a flash of flair against Aston’s predominantly digital cabin. Bathed in bright, clear SoCal daylight, the timepiece pops against the posh leather and Alcantara surfaces.
The Aston’s ability to squirt ahead thanks to its eager V8 creates gratifying seat-of-the-pants sensations that defy its elegance. Driving an Aston like you stole it on Mulholland, Stunt Road and Pacific Coast Highway is heady stuff, the kind of drive that reminds you of everything that’s special about combustion-powered motoring. There’s thrust at foot, grip on hand, and an imperious presence that makes most sports cars feel ordinary in comparison. Likewise, the Navitimer offers a bit of anachronistic exceptionalism on the wrist, the silver dial glinting within the sleek cabin as the tachometer climbs toward redline. The car offers high performance expressed through sophisticated turbocharging and torque vectoring; the watch, through mechanical traditions that predate the automobile itself.
The Navitimer is the opening chapter of the Breitling/Aston Martin story; it’s fair to say that at $10,300 it doesn’t quite match the occasion of a nearly half-million-dollar super coupe on price alone. A more level playing field might have been offered by something like the Breitling Premier B15 Duograph 42, a gorgeous $27,900 piece in 18k red gold that weighs a regal 169.8 grams. If we’re playing for keeps, Breitling even offers a Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Limited Edition at $77,500, still less than a fifth of the price of a well-equipped DB12 S. And if you believe the more terrestrially priced Breitling’s don’t stack up to Aston’s elevated offerings, fear not. I have it on good authority that a vintage Aston-inspired limited edition collaboration might be coming sooner than you think.
