Founded in 1884, Breitling made high quality mechanical chronograph its specialty early on, debuting models well before most other watch brands (which soon emulated Breitling) – and this full serviced 1969 Breitling Spirit Ref. 2010 mechanical chronograph is no exception to this rule.
 
Breitling introduced its Spirit Ref. 2010 in 1967 as a less costly alternative to the Swiss company's more expensive tri-register Venus 178-powered chronographs, such as the famous Breitling Navitimer, Top Time, and 765 CP “Jean-Claude Killy.”  And the Spirit is every bit as impressive – the design utilized an inner tachymeter track and rotating dual-use bezel to show a different time zone.
 
Per Fratello, “The Breitling Sprint 2010 is certainly one of the brand’s most popular historic models, but even today, it’s a great way to get into a well-known marquee for a fair price…the watches wear very well, contain a robust and easy to service movement, and they even stand out in a crowd…[its] been grossly underrated in vintage watch collector circles for some time, but is finally getting some deserved notice.”
 
The Spirit would be produced by Breitling through circa 1970, and it came in two dial variants – a reverse panda dial and the dial here.  But what makes the Spirit 2010 even more attractive in the contemporary era is its size – the 40mm width and somewhat slender 12.5mm height of the case easily rivals most watches produced by watch companies today.
 
The other unique part of the Breitling Spirit has been loosely touched upon – its atypical dial design, which led watch collectors to label the example here as “Batman,” “Bowtie” or “Zorro.”  Breitling was known to experiment with dial designs like this one in the 1960s, and it bears some resemblance to the Bulova “Surfboard” chronograph of the same era.
 
This Breitling Spirit Ref. 2010 comes on a premium leather strap, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, and spring bar tool.