Head Football Coach — Penn State University — Big Ten
James Franklin's Breitling Navitimer: The Coach Who Reads Every Gauge
James Franklin is widely described as one of the best CEO-type coaches in college football — a man who manages recruiters, coordinators, player development staff, and a roster of 85 scholarship players simultaneously. His second watch: a Breitling Navitimer, a chronograph built for pilots who need to run calculations on multiple variables at once while the aircraft keeps moving.
| James Franklin. Source: Penn State Athletics / X |
Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph. |
James Franklin has been the head coach at Penn State since 2014, and the volume of the operation he manages has grown considerably in that time. College football's transformation under the NIL era, the transfer portal, and the expansion of the College Football Playoff has made the job of a Power Five head coach more operationally complex than at any previous point in the sport's history. Franklin, who came to Penn State after turning Vanderbilt into a functional SEC program and who studied his craft as a recruiter and offensive coach at multiple major programs, has built Penn State into one of the Big Ten's more consistent performers: 102 wins through 2025, four New Year's Six bowl appearances, a 2024 College Football Playoff berth, and recruiting classes that routinely rank in the national top fifteen.
The "CEO coach" label fits Franklin in the sense that his value is organizational as much as tactical — his ability to hire and retain coordinators, to manage a large staff, to project energy and optimism to recruits and their families, and to keep a program operating at a high standard across the full calendar year. His "1–0" philosophy — treat every week as a standalone mission, win this game before thinking about the next — is the cultural glue that holds the individual game-planning cycles together. A coach who runs this kind of operation does not have the luxury of fixating on any single variable. He has to read every gauge simultaneously and make decisions while the season keeps moving forward.
"I think Penn State is one of the best jobs in the country. I'm not going anywhere." — James Franklin, on his commitment to the program
Timepiece
Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph
Breitling, founded in Saint-Imier, Switzerland in 1884, introduced the Navitimer in 1952 as a tool watch for members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association — a chronograph with a circular slide rule bezel that allowed pilots to perform in-flight calculations without reference to external instruments. Fuel burn, ground speed, rate of climb, nautical-to-statute mile conversion — all manageable on the wrist, in the cockpit, while the aircraft is in motion. It became the definitive pilot's chronograph and one of the most recognized luxury watches in the world.
The modern B01 generation is powered by Breitling's in-house Calibre B01, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a 70-hour power reserve — one of the most capable in-house movements in the brand's history. The 41mm and 43mm references are the most popular configurations, available in stainless steel or gold/steel combinations. The busy dial — three sub-dials, slide rule bezel, bidirectional crown, winged logo — is an acquired taste that rewards the kind of person who prefers instruments to ornaments.
| Reference | Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 or 43 (AB0138 series) |
| Case | 41mm or 43mm stainless steel; circular slide rule bezel |
| Movement | In-house Cal. B01; COSC-certified automatic; 70hr power reserve |
| Market Price | ~$9,000–$10,500 retail (steel) |
The Slide Rule as Coaching Philosophy
The Navitimer's circular slide rule bezel is not decorative. It is a functional analog computer that allows a pilot to perform multi-variable calculations on the wrist — converting units, computing time-speed-distance relationships, calculating fuel requirements — without stopping to reach for a separate instrument. The design assumes that the person wearing it is managing several things at once and cannot afford to lose situational awareness while performing any individual calculation. Every result is immediately visible in context with all the other information on the dial.
This is a reasonable description of how Franklin runs a college football program. The recruiting calendar, the transfer portal window, the injury report, the coordinator development meetings, the academic support requirements, the alumni relations obligations, the conference scheduling implications — none of these exist in isolation, and the decisions made in any one area affect every other. A coach who is genuinely good at the organizational dimension of the job maintains awareness of all of them simultaneously and makes decisions that account for the full picture. The Navitimer's busy dial is not a watch for people who prefer simplicity. It is a watch for people who need to read everything at once.
Two Watches, One Coach, The Same Mission
Franklin has been spotted in both the Navitimer and the Omega Speedmaster — two chronographs from different traditions that share more than they differ. Both were built for professional environments where precise timing matters and failure is not an acceptable outcome. Both carry genuine operational histories rather than heritage manufactured for marketing purposes. The Speedmaster went to the moon because it passed every test NASA threw at it; the Navitimer went into cockpits because it could perform every calculation a pilot needed without additional equipment. Franklin, who has built Penn State into a consistent contender while still chasing the national title that would complete his résumé, wears both. The mission is the same. The instruments just measure different things.
More James Franklin & Breitling on Spot.Watch
- James Franklin — Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch
- Trevor Lawrence — Breitling Avenger GMT
- Matt Leinart — Breitling Superocean Heritage B31
- Charles Woodson — Breitling Flying B
And at Spot.Watch — that's always worth noticing.
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