You're blowing down the freeway in your convertible and your speedometer suddenly fails; what can you do? If you're wearing a Breva Génie 03 wristwatch, you stick it out the window and carry on, as the latest in the Breva line is claimed to be the first watch to include a pop-up mechanical speedometer.
In an age of smartphones, a backup speedometer is only a GPS-equipped app away. Even in the antediluvian days of analog watches, there was the tachymeter on the chronograph dial to let you work out your average speed. But a mechanical wristwatch that can directly measure a vehicle's speed was one complication that hadn't been tried – until now.
The Génie 03 is billed by Breva as "the world’s first-ever wristwatch with a functional speedometer." It looks like many other upmarket watches and is a bit on the bulky side, with hours, minutes, and seconds read off in a dial on at the 7 o'clock position, but the standout feature is the large speedometer dial on the upper corner of the case marked out in either km/h or mph.

When the stud at 2 o'clock is pressed, the speedometer pops up 6 mm from the dial, exposing three titanium-alloy Robinson cups. Like a tiny anemometer, these catch the wind and spin the 45-component mechanism to give a velocity reading. The idea is that someone on a bicycle, motorcycle, convertible, speedboat, or other open vehicle can hold the watch into the wind and measure their speed from 20 to 200 km/h (or 10 to 125 mph), which is displayed directly on the speedometer dial.
For timekeeping, the Génie 03 has a 230 component, 34-jewel proprietary mechanical automatic movement that was developed in-house. Powered by a micro rotor engraved with the Breva compass rose, it has a 60-hour reserve and a 4 Hz balance wheel.
All of this is sealed in a titanium G5 case measuring 44.7 mm x 15.7 mm and the front and back are encased in sapphire crystals with anti-reflective coating. The whole thing is water resistant to 30 m (100 ft), and the speedometer is dust resistant when open. The strap is natural rubber with a titanium buckle.
The Génie 03 is available for US$56,800.
Source: Breva via A Blog to Watch
Please keep comments to less than 150 words. No abusive material or spam will be published.
Besides if you own this expensive watch, your multimillion dollar ride will not have a speedometer that fails, as if you really cared what speed your doing if alone for the bragging rights, other more accurate equipment exists.