Breguet is celebrating its 250th anniversary with the Classique Souscription 2025, a single-hand with an enamel dial that revives the philosophy of founder Abraham-Louis in every respect.
In recent years, the use of one's heritage has become increasingly popular, and has become a staple for most brands. But if the brand in question was founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the discourse is different. Launched to celebrate the House's 250th anniversary, the new Classique Souscription 2025 encapsulates the founder's entire philosophy, from the aesthetics to the mechanics to the sales method, and it's all extraordinarily contemporary.
What is now called crowdfounding and perceived as an innovative sales method actually has very ancient roots. After the French Revolution and a period spent in Switzerland, Abraham-Louis Breguet returned to France and started genuine mass production. This was done thanks to the Souscription method, whereby customers paid a quarter of the price of the watch at the time of ordering, in order to guarantee the purchase of raw materials and the wages of the watchmakers. Breguet also produced pioneering publicity leaflets to promote its products to a wider public. From a technical point of view, the Souscription models were the first to be equipped with a steel cylinder escapement, instead of a brass one, with a ruby section, which ensured a daily deviation of about one minute.
A new proprietary alloy: Breguet gold
Classique Souscription 2025: a unique hand finished and flame-blued in the purest watchmaking tradition.
The Classique Souscription 2025 has a 40 mm diameter case in Breguet gold, a new alloy consisting of 75% gold, enriched with silver, copper and palladium. Its colour is a perfect cross between yellow and red gold. The design is characterised by gentle lines, with the lugs harmoniously following the case middle which, in turn, is decorated with a brushed finish rather than the classic vertical groove.
The dial, essential and intuitive, is in white Grand Feu enamel, with black markers on which the large blued single hand stands out, guaranteeing legibility to the nearest 1 or 2 minutes. In the lower part, between the centre and 6 o'clock, the word 'Souscription', the serial number and Breguet's secret signature are engraved with a diamond-pointed pantograph.
The large central barrel of the movement is engraved with the text of an advertisement written by Abraham-Louis Breguet himself for his 'de souscription' watches
The Classique Souscription 2025 between history and modernity.
A novel guilloché motif was created for the decoration of the case back, ccalled Quai de l'Horloge and inspired by Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis, the places where Abraham-Louis lived and worked in Paris. The hand-wound manufactory-made movement, with a 96-hour power reserve, has an architecture inspired by that of the pocket watch models made since 1797 with the intention of broadening the customer base.
The Classique Souscription proves that Abraham Louis Breguet's philosophy is still relevant today, not only in terms of aesthetics - splendid in any case - but also the mechanics and even the business strategy.
Price53,600 euro,
