BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Breguet is my favourite watchmaker going, I love the way their watches look be them simple or complex, for men or women or anything else. They make designs from the 18th century look like they were made for the 21st and also have one of the richest histories in the watchmaking industry. However, they never seem to get the same level of discussion as other brands at this level of watchmaking. In some ways that’s good, as it means they’re more exclusive, but it still hurts a little to see people moving towards so many other brands first.
Breguet, like loads of other watchmakers out there, is celebrating an anniversary this year. Specifically, it’s celebrating its 250th anniversary, although we’ll leave out the bit in the late 20th century, when it was virtually dormant. The first watch (of many, I’m sure) to mark the occasion is the new Classique Souscription ref 2025BH/28/9W6.
‘Souscription’, subscription in English, refers to a model of watch Breguet made from 1797 to around 1827. Abraham-Louis Breguet, the company founder and namesake, was an astute businessman and a master of the horological arts. He knew that the majority of his watches were complicated pieces with plenty of fine detailing, which would make them impossible for most people to buy, much like today.
Breguet envisioned the Souscription watches as a way of reaching a wider audience, he even used publicity brochures to announce his new idea. He offered customers the opportunity to buy one and pay only a quarter of the price upfront, enough to cover material costs. The rest of the cost would be paid when the watch was delivered. Breguet was also careful to ensure the watches were delivered on the date agreed at first purchase. The watches were simple, with just one hand allowing owners to read the time in limited detail, but they were very high quality with finishing comparable to that of today’s watches, according to this writeup on The Naked Watchmaker, which you should look at when you’re done here.
Breguet made around 700 of the Souscription watches and, as I understand it, were regarded as a success. Undoubtedly, Breguet is hoping the new Classique Souscription watch will be a success as well and re-invigorate the market a bit.
The watch follows some of Breguet’s hallmark designs. It’s presented in a case measuring 40mm x 10.8mm and is crafted from a new material for 2025 they’re calling ‘Breguet gold’. Breguet gold is, as I suspected when they hinted at it a few days ago, a blend of rose gold designed to resist fading over time. Breguet says the material is 75% gold with a secret blend of copper, palladium and silver mixed in to make sure it always looks fresh and shiny and to be somewhat reminiscent to the colours of gold used back in Abraham-Louis Breguet’s time. The case is 30m water resistant and has a large crown, which will be convenient, but it’s lost its decorative ‘fluted’ (coin-edged) case sides, which are icons of the current watches. I noticed this was missing on the revised Type 20/Type XX watches and felt they lacked a special touch for the same reason. With that said, this is still a special watch.
I think this watch demonstrates that, in some cases, legibility and readability don’t go hand in hand. With one Breguet-shaped hand (made of steel and heat-blued, aka the difficult way of doing it) and not much else going on, we can hardly call this a cluttered dial. With that said, with only one hand covering all 12 hours, the dial shows you’re not going to get a majorly accurate reading of the time from it as the markers are set in intervals of five minutes. There are plenty of lovely details, though, such as the cursive Breguet signature, which looks a little more historically inspired than the ones on the other watches, and the Breguet Arabic numerals fit right in as one would expect, given that it’s their design.
The white enamel grand feu dial is crisp, and a secret signature has been etched into it using a diamond-tipped pantograph. Breguet used to use a pantograph to engrave the dials of his watches with the secret signature as a hallmark of their authenticity. Today, Breguet has been able to acquire one from the collection of master watchmaker Dr George Daniels, a fan of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s work, and uses it to inscribe the secret signature and the watch’s serial number into the enamel dial below the hand. However, it’s only viewable under certain lights.
Around the back of the watch, the magic continues. The manually-wound calibre VS00 is on display; it’s designed to be reminiscent of the movements found in the original Souscription watches and is made of brass, which matches the colour of Breguet gold. A new guilloché finish called Quai de l’Horloge is visible on the movement plates, and on the ratchet wheel in the centre sits cursive script. This script is made of Breguet’s words in his advertising brochures for the Souscription watches. The manually-wound movement has a 3Hz beat rate; the Nivachron spring features a Breguet overcoil, thus improving its accuracy, although it’s not a chronometer movement. A single barrel provides a 96-hour power reserve.
It’s pretty common to see watchmakers going through their history books to find things they can “re-interpret” for today’s market. It’s rare for them to redesign a 60mm pocket watch into a 40mm wristwatch, but they’ve managed it. It’s even rarer still for a watchmaker to go to the extent of recreating the movement layout used in the original, but again, they’ve done it. It’s a simple watch at a glance, but when you discover all the details they’ve put into it, it’s hard to ignore the depth and the love applied to the new Classique Souscription watch. It even comes in a red leather case, which is designed after the Moroccan leather cases the Souscription watches came in. Everywhere you look, there’s detail; that’s what you’re paying for.
The retail price of this is £45,700.
