Why? Because while Abraham-Louis Breguet has long been inextricably linked with patenting the tourbillon and inventing watch making landmarks such as the minute repeater gong, the ‘Sympathique’ clock and the ‘montre a tact,’ he paid as much attention to aesthetics as he did to mechanics.
Breguet’s use of engine-turning (or guilloché) for example, became a signature that still identifies the modern-day brand’s wrist watches, along with blued screws, the distinctively-shaped Breguet hands and, of course, the now widely-used numerals that he designed himself.
But there was another element to Breguet’s use of subtle embellishment that’s less often considered, and that is his love affair with enamel.
When he designed his celebrated Souscription watch during the 1790s, his ethos was one of simplicity and readability – and what could meet both criteria better than a single hand pointing to black numerals set on a dial of the purest white enamel?
The combination, revisited in last year’s Classique Souscription 2025 wrist watch, makes for one of the most restrained, elegant and legible combinations in watch making, with the luminosity and depth of the pristine enamel being key to its success.
From Abraham-Louis Breguet's iconic Souscription watch to today's tourbillons
Even today, centuries on from when it was invented by craftsmen in Georgia, enameling is a time consuming, exacting and risky business – and one area of watch making (unlike many others) which can be carried-out only by humans in the old-fashioned way.
Whether for a dial of a single color or a case decorated with an intricate scene, it can only be created by layering a surface with enamel powder and firing it, often multiple times, at temperatures of more than 800 degrees Celsius.
The jeopardy is great – too little heat, and the correct, glass-like finish will not be achieved; too much, and the enamel may simply disintegrate; allow a perfectly-fired piece to cool too quickly, and the surface can shatter. And as for dust and other ‘foreign bodies’ – don’t even think about it.
The rate of attrition is high, to say the least. With some makers reporting that more than 50 per cent of dials end up being rejected.
A living métier d'art
But that hasn’t stopped Breguet continuing its founder’s enameling tradition into the 21st century, not least in its current tourbillon collection which includes several models that showcase this particular ‘metiers d’art’.
A-L Breguet himself would undoubtedly have approved of the elegant simplicity of the Classique Tourbillon Extra Plat (Reference 5367) which - with its enamel dial in a choice of pristine black or milky white adorned with Breguet numerals and blued hands and featuring an aperture for the tourbillon cage at between four and six o’clock – could be described as ‘quintessential Breguet’.
The Tradition Tourbillon 7047, meanwhile, sees a small, offset dial finished in Lapis Blue enamel to match the finish of the bridges that secure the 499-part fuse and chain movement.
And if you want enamel but feel no Breguet is quite right without a touch of guilloche on the dial, the 35mm Classique Tourbillon 3358 will give you both in the form of a hand-engraved framework colored with red or blue ‘grand feu’ enamel which provides a dramatic showcase for the 12 o’clock dial and ‘shooting star’ tourbillon.
Perhaps the finest tribute to Breguet’s work, however, comes in the form of the four new references released this summer to mark 225 years since Breguet patented the tourbillon mechanism in 1801 – one of which, the £206,100 Classique Tourbillon Sidereal 7255, features a staggeringly beautiful grand feu dial.
Described as ‘aventurine enamel,’ it combines a luxuriously deep blue-black hue with a subtle sprinkling of shimmering sparkle intended, no doubt , to evoke the night sky and the concept of ‘sidereal time’ which is based on the rotation of the Earth in relation to fixed stars.
And with the tourbillon cage being not only of the ‘flying’ variety (the first in the maker’s history) but also suspended using the ‘mysterious’ (ie ‘invisible’) technique, it truly represent’s ‘The Art of Breguet.’
FAQ
Q: What is a tourbillon watch?
A: A tourbillon watch houses its escapement in a rotating cage that counters gravity's effect on timekeeping. Abraham-Louis Breguet patented the mechanism in 1801; the brand marked the 225th anniversary in 2026 with four new tourbillon references.
Q: What is Breguet's Classique Souscription watch?
A: The Breguet Classique Souscription is a wristwatch reviving Abraham-Louis Breguet's 1790s pocket watch design: a single hand pointing to black numerals on a pure white enamel dial. Breguet reissued it as the Classique Souscription 2025.
Q: What is a flying tourbillon?
A: A flying tourbillon is mounted on a single bridge rather than supported top and bottom, leaving the cage visually "floating." Breguet's Classique Tourbillon Sidereal 7255, priced at £206,100, is the first flying tourbillon in the brand's history.
Q: What is grand feu enamel?
A: Grand feu enamel is created by layering enamel powder on a dial and firing it repeatedly above 800°C, a process so exacting that makers reject over half the results. Breguet uses it on tourbillon models like the aventurine-dial Sidereal 7255.
