Over the summer we took some time out to visit some of our Parisian suppliers. We also visited Chateau Versailles, resided in by the very important Marie Antoinette- Breguet’s most famous royal patron.

A fantastic sourcing trip allowing us to visit some of the worlds best watch showrooms on the Champs-Elysées including the Cartier shop.

Breguet Watch

Breguet has the historical honour of being Marie Antoinette’s favourite brand. Founded in Paris in 1775 by Neuchâtel-born Abraham Louis Breguet, the brand has had the privilege of providing watches for the elites in the military, scientific, diplomatic and financial world and the crème de la crème who preferred Breguet’s time pieces. Owning a Breguet watch is an epitome of luxury, time precision and the distinction of being one of the “elite”.
As one of the oldest watch making company, Breguet was the innovator of many “firsts” in the world of horology. His first self-winding watch was the “perpetuelles” in 1780. In 1783, its signature open-tipped hands called the Breguet’s hands and the Breguet’s Arabic numeral came out. Before the turn of the 19th century, Breguet had invented the gong spring for the minute repeater, guilloche dials, ratchet key, an anti-shock device, the development of the perpetual calendar, musical chronometer, and the tact watch. Breguet’s greatest contribution in the watch-making industry is the tourbillion regulator in 1801. The first wristwatch was commissioned by the Queen of Naples, Carol Murat, in 1812. Before the half of the 19th century, the forerunners of the chronograph and the marine chronometer were already in the assembly line.

What makes Breguet’s creation more sought after was the fact that the time pieces made by A.L. Breguet were of superior craftsmanship and quality. Add the fact that its endorsers are no less than King Louie XVI, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Queen Victoria. George Washington, Tsar Alexander I and more. The brand of watch was also owned by fictional characters such as Phileas Fogg of Around the World in Eighty Days and Dr. Lorrain of War and Peace.

Each Breguet watch can be easily identified by the coin-edge cases called case band fluting, its guilloche dial featuring the iconic hollow eccentric moon hands and its blue signature Breguet hands. There is probably more imitation Breguets than originals. However, an original and authentic Breguet watch has a secret signature that only a true Breguet watch possesses.

To date, Breguet is now part of the Swatch Group of Companies. It has retained its truthfulness to the mission and vision of A.L. Breguet. Current collections are the: Traditions; Classique; Classique Complications; Marine; Heritage; Type XX and XXI; Reine de Naples (exclusive to women) and high jewellery watches.

Tradition collection is merger of the Breguet’s Souscription watch and modern technology. The look is avant-garde, technology is state-of-the-art but the general look and “feel” of the collection is reminiscent of the first creations of A.L. Breguet.

Classique collection features the simple yet elegant style of Breguet’s original watches. Classique Complications watches include four functions that have been perfected by the genius of the man himself: tourbillion; hand-wound movement that has been engraved manually; perpetual calendar that includes day-date, month and leap years; and small seconds on the tourbillion shaft itself and minute repeaters.

Marine collection passes the standards of the French navy chronometer. Water resistance is from 30 meter to 100 meters.
The Heritage collection does not have the signature round coin-edge casing but the curved tonneau case. Still, the collection looks like a Breguet.

The Type XX and Type XXI are patterned after the French Naval-Air military’s sturdy chronographs of the bygone World War II-era pilot’s watch.

An exclusive women’s line is the Reine de Naples, based on the first women’s wristwatch ordered by Caroline of Murat. Feminine and beautiful, the collection holds true the high quality and elegance of Breguet time pieces. A more bejewelled version is the collection of high jewellery watches. Each design from this collection is of 18 karat gold (white or red) and paved with diamonds in. Water resistance is up to 15 meters. But then, who would want to wet such a fine piece of a wristwatch?

Check out our range of Breguet Watches

Over the next few weeks i am going to be writing blog posts focusing on each individual watch brand and trying to provide a bit of background and also to put the lesser known brands into some context. Instead of starting with the big watch brands – Rolex, Omega, Breitling etc I’m going to start with the lesser known brands, today its the turn of Breguet. If you haven’t heard of Breguet i hope this article persuades you to look a bit deeper at them and consider giving them a prime piece of wrist real estate.

Brequet Watches

It may sound surreal but in certain places is not uncommon to hear that the music is suddenly stopped and replaced by the superman theme. While looking up to see what’s going on you may on occasion notice that a waiter wearing a superman outfit is prancing around to the music holding a bottle of very expensive champagne high above his head (the holding above his head bit is important as it is so he doesn’t melt his face off from the attached blazing firework). He will deliver the bottle to a table and sometimes, but not always, the people who just paid whatever outrageous amount for the champagne will proceed to shake it and squirt it all over superman and themselves.
So where am i going with this? Well if these people were watches they probably wouldn’t be a Breguet. If Breguet were a person he would be understated, reserved and very elegant. He wouldn’t be brash, assuming or garish.  However he also wouldn’t disapprove of the people squiring the champagne , he just probably wouldn’t notice as he was too deep in an important conversation. What I am trying to say is that Breguet Watches are classy and have a history second to none. In the industry they are know for their exclusiveness, their technical virtuosity and the reputation they have earned by being the choice of kings of nations and empires.

Watch 160 - the worlds rarest watch

Breguet was the favourite watch of Marie Antoinette queen of France. One of Marie’s admirers commissioned  Breguet to make a time piece “fit for a queen”. The watch was to be made from gold wherever possible and the number of complications should be as great and varied as engineering boundaries would allow, and then of course push them a bit. As for the time and cost of such a watch it was unlimited, unfortunately the Queen never had the chance to read the time on her watch “watch 160″ as it wasn’t finished until 1827 (that’s 34 years after her death, 4 years after Breguets death and 44 years after the watch was commissioned!!) Rome was built faster but the NHS it system probably wasn’t. I wonder if he ever got paid for the commission?

The Mary Antoinette watch came to symbolise Breguet as a company – its dedication to produce the most cutting edge timepieces with an unrivalled elegance. Breguet wouldn’t let money or time stand in the way of the most advanced watches of the period. His was the pursuit of haute horlogerie.

Breguet name dropping… here are a few of the people who have owned Breguets…this is once club it would be quite nice to be in:
Marie-Antoinette – Queen of France, Louis XVI – King of France, The Prince of Wales, (1801), The Prince of Wurtemberg, Selim III – Sultan of the Ottaman Empire, Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, George III, Price Orloff, Prince Poniatowski, Prince Ferdinand of Spain, Queen Victoria, The Duke of Wellington, Baron Rothschild, The Duke of Windsor and a very famous Sir Winston Churchill, thats just a few. Mostly Breguet owners are statesmen Kings, Queens, Princes and generally very important people.

Hopefully I’m not leading us all astray here, I do realise that I have spoken a lot about how Breguet seek excellence and how many wealthy people have owned them…however, are they available to the mere moral? the answer is yes, Breguet watches range in price from £3195 – £5600 for standard models and can hit the sky for custom and limited editions but let’s not worry about those for now. That puts them in the same price bracket as most other luxury Swiss watches.

I would say that if you are looking to buy a watch that comes with a lot of history then you have a choice of a lot of brands. However Breguet is unsurpassed for its sheer presence in the “unbelievably important people of history” category and owning ones puts you in the same very exclusive club. A Breguet will look stunning on your wrist but its generally not a watch that will have every Tom, Dick and Harry realising that you have impeccable taste as most people have never heard of, and never will hear of Breguet. However if you roll in the right circles you may get a nod and a smile from a fellow Breguet owner.

If you have any questions about Breguet just post them below and we will try and answer them!

Check our range of Breguets here.

Kind regards

Iconic Watches