My favorite television show is a show that I can’t even watch here in the United States, but even so, I am a HUGE fan of Top Gear, which is a very popular British car program on BBC2. I even hear that presenter James May is a bit of a watch collector, and whenever I should happen to him on the program he always seems to be wearing something different.

Now that the 11th Series of Top Gear is well underway I’m glad to say that one of Breitling’s most notable watches was casually referenced in a recent episode when presenter Jeremy Clarkson was talking about “cocks.” To Americans like me it wasn’t immediately obvious what a “cock” was, but just by context you can eventually figure out that a “cock” is the British equivalent of an American yuppie, but only without any age limit.  In addition, a cock is also apparently a basically a business idiot who doesn’t think for themselves and drive around in cars made by Audi or Aston Martin (or BMW). It was also noted that cocks wore those “stupid Breitling” watches with a button you press that makes the “helicopter” come.  As Jeremy was making his point it just so happened that a member of the audience had one on at which he asked about the helicopter that would be arriving.

Whatever could they be talking about?

The Breitling Emergency of course:

NEW BREITLING PROFESSIONAL EMERGENCY MENS WATCH E7632110/C549

This is one of the most unique and arguably the most significant Breitling watch out there today. It’s not terribly common as far as i can tell, but this is the only watch that I know of that requires you to sign an agreement to pay rescue costs should you misuse the distress signal that calls out the National Guard to come rescue you if anything should happen.

You see the aptly-named Breitling Emergency has a radio transmitter that was originally designed as an emergency distress beacon for civilian pilots should they crash and get lost at sea. They operate by sending out a signal on a specific distress frequency and can transmit such a signal for almost 100 miles. It was actually noted that some people in Antarctica crashed in Antarctica and were rescued after rescuers honed in on the emergency signal transmitted from their Breitling Emergency watches.

Obviously this kind of largely useless technology is appealing to the posers out there who like to brag to their friends that their watches can make helicopters appear out of mid-air, but to me, this watch is a largely a novelty whose emergency safety net will likely never even come close to having to be used by the vast majority of those who buy it.

Of course should I happen to be stuck in the middle of Antarctica with no ways of communicating to anyone but the local wildlife than I’m sure I would think differently.