Breguet: Luxury watches with a past

It’s been a long time since my last post about watches so today I wanted to tell you the story of the Breguet brand and its maker – Abraham-Louis Breguet, and show you what I believe to be three of the most interesting Brueget timepieces: the Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887, the Classique 7137 and the Classique 7337.

Abraham-Louis Breguet – a timepiece genius

Breguet is a brand with more than 250 years of history behind it which is now part of the Swatch Group. It was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet from France. This was when he opened his first watchmaker shop at Quai de L’Horloge in Paris. It is now one of the oldest manufactories making timepieces.

Breguet – considered to be the watchmaker of all times – was a true genius, not only did he perfect the perpetuelle automatic winding mechanism but also created the tourbillon watch featuring a complex mechanism correcting the position errors of a watch resulting from the effects of gravity. He is also the brains behind the so-called “Brueget spring” or a perfected balance spring, or the montre a tacte watch telling the time without having to take it out of the pocketi.

Breguet lived in tumultuous times – the French Revolution and everything that followed did not make his life peaceful. Despite these obstacles, Breguet managed to establish himself as a respected timepiece maker and his watches were purchased by everyone who could afford them. His clients included Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Talleyrand and Napoleon’s family.

After Breguet’s death the business was taken over by his son and in 1870 it was sold to English watchmaker Edward Brown. Since 1976 the Breguet brand is based in Switzerland and in 1999 it became part of the Swatch Group. Timepieces by Breguet were worn by Winston Churchill, Lev Tolstoy and Jan Kulczyk and other proud owners include Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev.

Here is a list of three Breguet watches that are worth knowing.

Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887

This is a new 2020 model combining bold sporty aesthetics with a complex clockwork and manual ornaments. The timepiece is fitted with a tourbillon, an indication of equation of time and a perpetual calendar.

Classique 7137

This classic model has been available from the brand for a long time and it underwent a redesign in 2020. What makes it special is its guilloche dials: on the date dial (damier), the reserve indicator (panier maillé) and the face (clous de Paris). The watch has an automatic werk based on the 502.3 caliber.

Classique 7337

This must be my favourite model as its classic look is enriched with stylish extravagance. This timepiece also has an interesting set of guilloche decorations: grain d’orge (hour scale), clous de Paris (centre) and damier (small dial). The watch caliber is 502.3 QSE1.