To celebrate its 250th anniversary this year, Breguet is returning to purity with this beautifully executed new 40 mm timepiece. It features a clean white enamel dial with time displayed by a single blued Breguet hand and Arabic numerals. Two centuries ago it was debuted by the godfather of watchmaking, Abraham-Louis Breguet as a pocket watch. Dating to 1797, the pocket watch was one of the earliest Souscription watches from the man who invented the concept now used by modern watchmakers like F.P. Journe and many other independents like him. As much an engineer and an artist as he was a businessman, Breguet created the idea of requiring customers to put a deposit on a watch, which enabled him to buy the supplies needed to make the timepiece without taking on so much risk.
The movement is classic Breguet and directly inspired by the original pocket watch. But the VS00 gilded brass caliber is entirely new. Furthermore, it comes with a newly developed guilloche technique called Quai de l’Horloge after Breguet’s original manufacture in Paris. The caliber, beating at 3Hz, offers four days of power reserve from a single barrel. Monsieur Breguet would, no doubt, be thrilled.
From the article by Paige Reddinger
