Soaring to New Heights: Breitling Skims the Clouds
It’s widely known that Breitling makes watches. With the Breitling Kitchen in Geneva and the Breitling Café in Seoul and London, the company has also been making its mark in the restaurant industry for some time now. Now it’s aiming high in the real estate sector.
Partners Group, the majority owner of Breitling, announced today that it will launch a 70-story skyscraper project in Miami. What does this have to do with Breitling? It’s simple.
The project, officially named B Residences, is being developed under the Breitling brand and is set to feature 300 luxury condominiums as well as several penthouse units with private pools.
In addition, there is an extensive range of amenities, including unique views of the city and the sea, concierge services, rooftop pools, and a private fitness center—all in keeping with Breitling’s brand identity and Swiss quality standards. In addition, residents will have access to the approximately 4,180-square-meter B Social Club, which spans two floors and offers an immersive indoor and outdoor program.
Alfred Gantner, co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of Partners Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Breitling, says: “B Residences marks an exciting new chapter in Breitling’s history: the brand’s bold spirit brings more than a century of Swiss precision, expertise, and tradition to the built environment.”
Incidentally, the original idea came from Georges Kern (CEO of House of Brands, which also owns Breitling), who had already spoken about it several years ago. He revealed this in an interview with *Bilanz* magazine:
“I explained to our board of directors at the time that I was convinced the traditional diversification strategy for a watch brand no longer works today. Customers are hardly interested in perfumes or leather goods anymore. People today are buying a lifestyle. That’s why it was clear to me that we needed to evolve Breitling into a brand that people can experience, and with the Breitling Kitchens, we’ve taken our first small steps in Switzerland, South Korea, and England. When Partners Group acquired the real estate developer Empira two years ago, the opportunity suddenly arose, and Empira eventually proposed launching our first project in Miami. For me, this fit perfectly with the strategy we’d been discussing internally for a long time. (…) “We have a clear visual language centered on the worlds of Air, Land, and Sea. You can tell immediately if something is Breitling. This identity can be applied just as easily to architecture as it can to gastronomy or hospitality.”
