Breit Young Thing: Austin Butler
Austin Butler, the man of the moment and now an ambassador for Breitling, talks to THE RAKE’s Editor-in-Chief about watchmaking artistry, his screen idols, and keeping alive the lessons of the past.
Austin Butler and Breitling are the most kindred of spirits. The announcement that he would become their ambassador was never going to be met with surprise or confusion, for the two partners blend seamlessly together. Ever since Elvis and Masters of the Air, it has felt like Butler is reincarnated from yesteryear, a human form cast out of pure nostalgia. Similarly, Breitling’s branding is grounded in mid-20th- century romance, and you have a sense in their collaboration of a kind of British-American aesthetic coming together in a narrative that people will find irresistibly delicious.
It was gratifying, therefore, to be the only journalist invited to discuss with Butler his latest move, and what a pleasure our conversation was. He is charming, in the cheerful American way, undeniably handsome, and now, in his thirties, a man of stature and poise.
He joined Breitling having been accosted by the accoster-in- chief, Georges Kern, who has always had an immaculate eye not just for elegant celebrity but for storytelling. “Georges walking me through every step of the artistry of making a watch, he just made me fall in love with it,” Butler says. “I was coming off of The Bikeriders, and so I’d done a motorcycle film, and then I’d worked on Masters of the Air, and played a pilot, and [joining Breitling] just fitted with that point in my life.”
Specifically, Butler is the face of the new Top Time B31, a Breitling re-release with an in-house movement that is pitched at a more reasonable price point, which is sensible considering it is an aesthetic winner across the board for someone who wants a classic, well-made wristwatch. It also has its Hollywood glamour, featuring as it does in Thunderball, when Bond wears a Q-customised version.
Butler describes his personal style as fairly uncomplicated and not trend-driven; he likes comfort but also seeks the kind of everlasting sartorialism that we try to portray in these pages. “I always look at the pictures of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, and they’re so timeless,” he says.
His father played a pivotal role in his sensibilities, both culturally and stylistically. He taught Austin to ride a motorcycle at 15 and took him to the countryside in Arizona [his grandparents’ home state] to ride horses. It was his father’s choice of movie nights that clearly informed Austin in so many aspects of his life. He says, “My father is a movie buff, and so we grew up with Turner Classic Movies and we watched the classic film every night growing up, so that’s a huge part of my life. The first that I really remember watching was — I must have been about five, because I was small enough that I was sleeping on my dad’s chest, and I remember just waking up for bits of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and laying on his chest as a tiny little child. Also, Alfred Hitchcock films, Citizen Kane and all these films he loved that he then got to pass on to me.”
As this issue of The Rake commemorates V.E. Day, and with Butler having studied the era so closely while he was preparing to play Buck Cleven in Masters of the Air, I was curious about his thoughts on the greatest generation. “I had the great fortune of meeting some of the men who flew B-17s and hearing the stories directly from them,” he says. “I’m sure you’ve probably met some world war II veterans, so you know the bravery and how harrowing it was and how young they were and how they all came together around this unified vision of a better future, and how so many of them bought our freedom with their lives. I have such a deep, deep reverence for them, and gratitude.
“I can’t believe it’s 80 years, that’s really remarkable. I feel so grateful I’ve had a chance to meet some of them. You know, one was 102, he was a pilot, [John] ‘Lucky’ Luckadoo. He talked about how flak came through his B-17 as he was still piloting, and he had an eight-hour mission and it blew a hole right through where his feet were. It’s negative 40 degrees of cold, and so he had ice blocks around his feet, and they had to chip his feet out when he landed. The things you don’t realise they had to deal with.”
Perhaps this partnership with Breitling allows Butler to tap into that spirit of yesteryear, in which the lessons and legacies of these great men are made to feel tangible and important as a new generation of Newmans and McQueens — a generation now led by Austin Butler — provides inspiration for the rest of us. Like time, the cycle continues.
My father was a movie buff, so we grew up with Turner Classic Movies and watched the classic film every night.
