Rediscover the time, and the right, to cross the door of a boutique, to be welcomed almost in complete privacy, obviously in compliance with the sanitary rules of the moment, to discover the best of the art of watchmaking ... No, definitely, Zoom can never replace reality.
Breguet proves it in its own way with three editions available exclusively in its boutiques, including the one at Place Vendôme in Paris.
Three good reasons to immerse yourself in the know-how of the brand created by one of the greatest watchmaking geniuses in history.
Tradition Woman 7038, feminine showcase
The devil is in the details, they say.
Just as much paradise, with this pink gold watch with a bezel set with 68 diamonds and a crown adorned with a ruby.
In this version reserved for boutiques, the Tradition 7038 is dressed in Tahitian mother-of-pearl with intense reflections and an orange leather strap.
A true fashion engraving, haute horlogerie style.
Breguet
On the dial side, the lines of its self-winding movement fitted with a silicon hairspring coated in deep brown echo the symmetry of the subscription watches formerly created by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, after the Revolution.
Here, the spiral balance - the heart of the watch - can be admired between 4 and 5 o'clock under a bridge reinforced with a "pare chute" or "shock absorber" system, invented by Breguet in 1790. Between 7 and 8 o'clock, the center wheel and its bridge seem to reflect Breguet balance wheel, of identical dimensions.
The golden central barrel - decorated with a rosette motif - as well as the movement wheels contrast with the golden brown of the shot-peened bridges and mainplate.
Breguet
For the occasion, the case of this watch turns into a fashion pouch.
The House has in fact called on artisans in Italy, specializing in the traditional art of saddlery, to handcraft and tailor a pouch in grained calfskin.
Bright orange, matching the Tradition 7038 bracelet, it can be worn by hand, over the shoulder or across the body.
Decorated with a rosette, the round and gilded clasp of the cover echoes, in other dimensions, the guilloché barrel visible on the dial side of the Tradition 7038, and barely ten millimeters.
Breguet Tradition Woman 7038, 38 800 €
Tradition Quantième Retrograde 7597, perpetual elegance
On this 40 mm diameter model, the hours and minutes dial, offset at 12 o'clock and made in gold, is inspired by that of certain Breguet tact watches.
Its self-winding 505Q caliber has an inverted line lever escapement with silicon lugs, as well as a Breguet curved balance spring, also in silicon.
On the back, the gold oscillating weight visible through the transparent case-back recalls that of the “perpetual watches” with jolts, once imagined by the genius watchmaker.
Breguet
It is between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. that one can admire the retrograde date zone, traversed by a hand expertly curved in the vertical plane, in order to follow the contours of the highly architectural movement.
A patented mechanism allows fine adjustment of the date hand.
The latter has multiple levels allowing it to fly over the components of the movement.
At 10 o'clock, a screw-in corrector allows the date to be set in complete safety.
Tradition Retrograde Calendar 7597, € 36,900 (pink gold), € 37,700 (White Gold)
Breguet Tradition 7097, time laid bare
This novelty exclusively offered in Breguet boutiques is a revisited version of the Tradition Automatic Seconde Rétrograde 7097, with a guilloché dial in a bluish hue.
For purists, lovers of movements, it pays tribute to the beauty of the mechanism of subscription watches and to the tact of the house by revealing bridges, wheels, escapement, barrel and other components of the movement, which, usually, are found under the turntable.
A real watchmaking exposure.
Breguet
This reference 7097 with a 40 mm case features a movement fitted with an inverted line lever escapement with silicon lugs and a Breguet end-curve silicon balance spring.
The hours and minutes display, via Breguet rhodium-plated
“hollow-apple”
hands,
is supplemented at 10 o'clock by the retrograde second indication.
In order to provide optimal readability of all the information and to highlight this complication, the Breguet watchmakers have superimposed it on the dial using a semi-circle with a circular brushed finish.
Still in the interests of symmetry, the pare-chute, an emblematic element of the Tradition collection, has been cleverly positioned at 4 o'clock.
Identifiable at first glance, this invention by Breguet, ancestor of the modern
“Incabloc”
, protects the axis of the balance from shocks.
Breguet Tradition 7097, € 35,200