WORDS
Joanne Glasbey
Bertrand Piccard has always been a pioneer, setting out to challenge the impossible. After all, it’s in his DNA: his greatest inspirations were his grandfather, the first man to fly to the stratosphere, and his father, who made the debut dive in his submarine to the ocean’s deepest point. Piccard dreams big, and is motivated to make the planet a better place.
He’s always aimed high, even around the age of 10, when his family moved to Florida and he met astronauts from the Apollo 11 space mission, who he found hugely inspirational. When he was a teenager in the 70s, Swiss-born Piccard was an early pioneer in hang gliding, winning competitions and later becoming a European aerobatics champion. He was excited to push his limits and began to understand how putting yourself in extreme situations meant you handled yourself better, managing danger and risk. He also found another upside: ‘During my studies to become a medical doctor, I would use it to concentrate, and the next day I would be calm for my exams, with no stress.’ He passed all those exams and then qualified as a psychiatrist with an interest in hypnotherapy.
In 1992, when he heard a friend was looking for a co-pilot for a balloon race across the Atlantic, he leapt at the chance. But first they needed some backing, and he knew where to go: ‘I called the owner of Breitling and asked for sponsorship.’ He got it and they went on to win the race, and made sure Breitling’s logo was on display for press photos. So later, when his dream was to fly non-stop around the world, he approached Breitling again, this time to partner with money and aviation expertise, and he got the thumbs up. The global attempt became a popular race, with many well-known teams trying and failing. The goal was to do it before the end of the millennium, and his first two attempts, with co-pilot Brian Jones, failed. The third attempt, in March 1999, was going to be the last. ‘We were in a pressurised cabin, a cylinder full of electronics,’ he describes. ‘We had a bunk, a tiny kitchen, toilet and spent 20 days in the air.’ Piccard and Jones succeeded in making the longest flight with no refuelling in aviation history.

The next impossible endeavour Piccard set out to achieve was to fly a solar-powered plane around the world. So the Solar Impulse platform was created to raise public awareness and encourage political action in favour of clean technologies and renewable fuel. He gathered a large global team of experts and advisors by 2009, despite the reaction of many aviation specialists who said it couldn’t be done, that a plane with a jumbo jet’s wingspan weighing the same as a small family car wouldn’t make it, and anyway there wouldn’t be enough sun to fly day and night.
But Piccard and his co-pilot André Borschberg took off from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and flew the single seater on its epic mission, often having to rest for a month or more when weather conditions prevented them flying. They successfully completed their route, touching down in Abu Dhabi in July 2016.
The pioneering spirit that has kept him pushing aviation boundaries is now being put to use full-time in the cause of ecology. He’s a highly influential voice for progress and sustainability and his insights as both explorer and medical doctor give him a singular perspective on how people manage change and crisis. Today, as a UN Goodwill Ambassador – and member of Breitling’s Explorer Squad – the 60 year old’s sights are set characteristically high. He has set up the Solar Impulse Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, supported by Breitling, to select and label 1,000 solutions that are profitable, to protect the environment. ‘We want to bring these start-ups and research labs to investors and people who need their solutions,’ he explains. Based on his track record in the ability to realise his dreams, he’ll definitely be making this happen.
Meanwhile, Breitling is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the inaugural non-stop round-theworld balloon flight with the release of the Cockpit B50 Orbiter Limited Edition (£POA). The timepiece is created from black carboncoated titanium. In addition to the chronograph with split-time and flyback capabilities, it features a second timezone display, a perpetual calendar, and two alarms with buzzer or vibrate mode, among many other special functions, including the use of Coordinated Universal Time (UCT). Breitling CEO Georges Kern is rightly proud of the brand’s links with Piccard: ‘Bertrand is an explorer of the first rank, and he is also one of the world’s true visionaries. He inspires all of us and constantly strives to make the planet a better place. We knew that we had to create a very special watch to honour him and the 20th anniversary of the Breitling Orbiter 3.’