Undeniably one of the greatest watchmakers founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. His achievement was the many outstanding innovations and invention that revolutionized the horological history. He has been credited as the Father of Watchmaking.
His creations and timepieces were quickly recognized and by 1777 he was working as a jeweler to the French Royal family. He still continues his passion toward developing the finest timepieces. In 1780, he created the world’s first self-winding watch. It was known as Perpetuelle or automatic movement.
The first significant invention was in 1795 when he invented the tourbillon escapement. This particular invention was patented in 1801 which was placed in an 18-karat pocket watch.
The tourbillon was considered a major break through because of its difficulty in creation even till this today of watchmaking. They were also the first to invent the wristwatch which was made for the Queen of Naples in 1810.
Abraham-Louis died in 1823 and his one-man business was later carried on by his grandson, Louis Clement Breguet. Thereafter there were many ownership transfers from family to private ownerships of Georges Brown to Chaumet Brothers to Investcorp in 1987.
In was only in 1999 that Swatch Group finally took over the company and resurrected their legacy of innovative and high quality timepieces. The Classique collection is one of the most prominent production from Breguet after their 200th anniversary celebration of the tourbillon in 2001.
Ref. 5237: Made of 18-karat yellow gold with a hand-wound mechanical column-wheel chronograph. It is a 21 jeweled movement that is numbered and bears the Breguet signature. Its subdials are a seconds counter at 9 and a 30-minute totalizer at 3.
Ref. 5140: an extremely thin movement that is only 2.4mm with a self-winding caliber of 35 jewels. It has an off-centered seconds subdial that is located at 5 over an oven-fired hand-enameled dial and a cambered sapphire crystal. Its power reserve is 48 hours. There are two versions shown above: simple white dial and silver dial with guilloche pattern.
Ref. 5937PT: Shown above is the Classque Grand Complications that is crafted in platinum and silvered-gold. It is a unique watch with a minute repeater and perpetual calendar. Its subdials includes a counter that has both month and year at 12, a date counter at 3, a day counter at 9, and a moonphase at 6. Only seven pieces were produced.
Some other Classique collections are:
