For me, there was a perfect moment when Breitling’s love of the annual Wheels and Waves festival in Biarritz really made sense. (And yes – that is a motorcycle and surfing festival in the elegant resort town in southwest France.) I was walking down the long, sloping drive of the Hôtel du Palais when an elegant lady in a black cocktail dress, carrying a chic brown handbag, came sashaying past. On a skateboard. This was Sierra Quitiquit, US professional skier and co-founder of Plastic Free Fridays, who, like myself, had been invited to Biarritz to be introduced to the Swiss watchmaker’s new association with the Surfrider Foundation, and witness the launch of two new watches.

Along with a bunch of journalists and a group of friends of the brand comprising, among others, athletes, activists and actors, I’d spent the morning taking part in a beach clean-up, under the supervision of the Surfrider Foundation, before decamping to Breitling’s home at the Wheels and Waves village. Now Sierra (still on skateboard) and myself were heading to the Biarritz store of Australian surf and motorcycle brand Deus Ex Machina for a party to launch two new Breitling Top Time watches.

The skateboarding skier was simply having fun, and this appears to be a big part of Breitling’s MO. Although it is a brand that’s involved in some important initiatives, like the Surfrider Foundation project to protect the sea and the beaches from environmental damage, Breitling is making a name for itself as a watchmaker that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This manifests itself in its products, which are often eye-catching and surprising.

Take the Top Time range. This is based on a collection of chronographs launched in 1964 that were specifically designed to attract a younger, and in the idiom of the time, more “swinging”, customer. Willy Breitling, Breitling’s boss at the time, was explicit about his aim: ‘Young people won’t buy the kind of watch Dad wears. They will be interested in a competition watch with special dials and push buttons. A watch that will “impress the boys” – a watch that is both impressive and really elegant.’

The idea was that a chronograph could be less of a specialist timepiece and more something that a sporty generation could enjoy. Dial variations were introduced, including one that featured contrasting bow-tie panels and is today called the Zorro as it looks like the swordsman’s mask. Water resistance was improved by a monocoque construction and the rugged, sporty individuality of the model was endorsed by none other than Sean Connery’s James Bond when he was issued with one featuring a Geiger counter in 1965’s Thunderball. (Pop fact: the actual watch the actor wore was bought for £25 at a car boot sale and then sold at auction in 2013 for nearly £104,000.)

Breitling revived the Top Time range in 2020 and has themed these watches around bikes and cars (three models are inspired by historic classic cars: the Ford Mustang, Shelby Cobra and Chevrolet Corvette). There have to date been two Top Time Triumph collaborations and two with Deus Ex Machina. All the 21st-century Top Time pieces have a distinctive squared-off sub-dial shape described as a “squircle”, which brings a vintage dashboard vibe. Now in Biarritz, Breitling is adding a new Deus Ex Machina timepiece and new Triumph collaboration, both of which have been mechanically upgraded with the introduction of Breitling’s Manufacture Caliber 01 movement.

‘The Breitling Caliber 01 is a finely tuned engine, created with all the precision and attention to detail that goes into building the perfect bike,’ says Breitling CEO Georges Kern. ‘These co-branded Top Time watches are for those who are as into the mechanics of their watch as they are the mechanics of their motorcycle.’

Kern was hosting the party at Deus Ex Machina in Biarritz and the place was humming, with a giant Scalextric set, DJs and a buffet served on the back of a classic VW Caddy, not to mention the row of great motorbikes parked outside (including the very handsome current Triumph Thruxton RS Chrome, with its shiny metal tank).

Here, the Breitling CEO presented the two new watches, the third iteration of the Top Time Deus, now with a black dial, and the third model too of the Top Time Triumph. This, like its predecessors, has a blue dial in a shade that references the colour of Marlon Brando’s ride in the classic 1953 biker movie The Wild One. That was a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird 6T (the actor’s own), but the colour was news to me as the film was shot in black and white. But if you look at colour images of Marlon with his Thunderbird, you can see that it is indeed blue. The colour also nods to a similar blue that was used on one of Breitling’s ’70s Top Time watches.

As a long-time Triumph rider, and having just ridden to Biarritz on one of the firm’s Tiger 900 machines, a loan from Triumph Italy that meant I could get a proper European road trip experience, this new blue timepiece caught my eye. Like all the Top Time Triumphs to date, the dial has the Zorro configuration, making it even more striking. The logical thing to do, surely, was to road test it on my way back to Milan.

And so, a couple of days later, the blue Top Time Triumph strapped to my wrist, I set off on the long ride across southern France to northern Italy. It’s roughly 1,200km and I decided to break for two nights.

The first thing I noticed about the chronograph is that it is extremely legible, which is a good thing on a motorcycle – you can only glance at your wrist while riding for updates of the time, so you need to have a timepiece that is easy to read. The white Super-LumiNova® glowing hands (hour and minute) stand out well. The ice-blue face seems to help the legibility, too, maybe because the black hour and minute markers are well-defined against it.

I clock an interesting phenomenon in the southern European sunlight too – when daylight is bright, the blue colour of the dial almost disappears, rendering it a type of pale silvery hue. I particularly like this, as the colour can read almost as a neutral shade which means the watch will pair easily with multiple outfits. Mine was pretty much the same for the duration – a black mesh jacket by Knox, reinforced with body armour, well ventilated to cope with the summer heat. But I had also packed a brown leather jacket, and the watch looked equally good with both.

The ride took me first from Biarritz to the ancient town of Arles, which is a long-standing favourite of mine. After passing the yellow-awninged Le Café La Nuit in the Place du Forum – on the site which Van Gogh painted in his 1888 Café Terrace at Night – I get a table at a lovely little restaurant called Le Galoubet. Here my Top Time was perfectly at home as Le Galoubet features electric guitars propped in the corners, vinyl records and a vintage telephone mounted on the wall to complement the big wooden tables, overhead ceiling fan and painted jungle-scene mural. The place has a touch of the Wes Anderson about it and the Top Time Triumph feels like it is from a wardrobe department, a prop to add to the vintage look of the scene; it even has a retro Breitling logo and mushroom chronograph pushers (with protruding flat heads) that speak of old-school design. In the lower light, the Zorro markings are more visible than in the bright sunlight, and the black “squircle” sub dials really stand out.

From Arles I headed to the coast, stopping off in Cannes to pay my respects to the Carlton hotel on the Croisette, en route to Antibes. This picture-postcard-pretty city sits on the Côte d’Azur after Cannes and before Nice heading east. I parked up outside the ramparts (16th century) and took in the yachts moored in the harbour before entering the old town for dinner. The next morning I allowed myself a dip to enjoy the water before getting back on the bike. At the waterfront my watch now looked like a proper Bond-like ’60s sports number, and its glare-proofed cambered sapphire crystal cast an intriguing shadow on the dial, accentuating a sense of its 3D physicality. I was aware that I didn’t have a tux under my wetsuit, though. Or a wetsuit for that matter. Or a Geiger counter.

Last stop Milan, after a ride along the coast towards Italy and Genoa and then a turn north. I reached the city hot and tired but on time, which was just as well as I had a flight home to London to catch. The Top Time kept me punctual, and kept me company. A really useful companion and a good-looking one too. Now I just need the blue Triumph to match.

The Breitling Top Time B01 Triumph chronograph with black calfskin leather strap, £6,250; breitling.com