Like its predecessors, the Thunderbird sports sub-dials that nod in their shape-somewhere between a square and a circle, and called a “squircle” by Breitling-to the mid-century design era that spawned the original cars.For years, we’ve wanted to extend Thunderbird beyond the desktop, and the path to delivering a great Thunderbird on Android™ experience started in 2018. While the other watches in the capsule have contrasting sub-dials in black or white, the Thunderbird is white on white. In stark contrast to the green, red, and blue dials of the Mustang, Corvette, and Cobra respectively, the 41mm, steel-cased Thunderbird has a white dial and subtle tone-on-tone baton markers. This week, the brand turned the trio into a quartet with the Top Time B01 Ford Thunderbird. In 2021 Breitling brought back the Top Time in a line inspired by classic road cars of the 1950s and '60s, including the Mustang, the Corvette, and the Cobra each with different design details and signature sunray dial colors. The Top Time, launched in 1964, was a chronograph stripped of all unnecessary detail and replaced with bold, graphic displays that would resonate with kids riding motorbikes or driving sports cars. Back then, Willy Breitling, grandson of the founder, saw a new generation of potential customers emerging that was't excited by the complicated timepieces of their parent’s generation but every bit as into the fast life.

Swiss brand Breitling has long been synonymous with the high-flying professional aeronautical world, but it was already delving into more earthbound excitements as early as the 1960s. Welcome to Dialed In, Esquire's weekly column bringing you horological happenings and the most essential news from the watch world.

The thunderbird