The New Breguet Classique Tourbillon 7357 Is A Purist Collector’s Dream

This year marks the 225^th anniversary of the tourbillon, and one of the brands celebrating the event with enthusiastic panache is Breguet. Of course it is—after all, it was Abraham-Louis Breguet himself who invented the tourbillon and granted the historic patent on 26 June 1801. He sought to improve the accuracy of pocket watches, and placing the escapement inside a rotating carriage was one of his solutions; theoretically, this would nullify the effect of gravity on the hairspring by evening out its effect with each rotation.

The results are debatable, and for wristwatches even more so. Nevertheless, what Breguet invented has become revered as a testament to the skill of the watchmaker—and, by collectors, as one of the most visually compelling complications found in a timepiece. Today, every watchmaker wanting to be taken seriously will have a tourbillon in its line-up—and, for the modern-day maison Breguet, this is certainly the case.

The brand has unveiled six tourbillon references for the occasion. These include new executions of familiar pieces: a new platinum and black dial look for the Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255 (RM1.14 million), limited to 50 pieces, introduced last year as the brand’s first flying tourbillon; an electrifying blued-up look for the Tradition Tourbillon 7047 (RM1.26 million), limited to 25 pieces; and the Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887 (from RM 1.5 million), now with a hand-painted, constellation-studded night sky.

But for the purists, the jaded die-hard collectors that Breguet has been courting of late, it is something old, but new: the Classique Tourbillon 7357. It references a historic model, Ref. 3350, released in 1989 as the first tourbillon wristwatch produced by the modern-day Breguet, but passes it through a contemporary lens in terms of both aesthetics and performance.

The result is the very essence of Breguet. Tourbillon at six o’clock. Offset dial with blued Breguet-style hands and numerals. Guilloche-patterned dial—hand-done, of course—with a hobnail pattern in the centre and barleycorn pattern outside it. And, best of all, it is a vintage-accurate 35mm in diameter, and supremely elegant at slightly over 9mm in thickness. Aside from wearing supremely well, this makes the 7357 an understated, reverent take on high horology, rather than an ostentatious, attention-seeking one.

It is equipped with a manually wound Calibre 187B, which is a direct successor to the Calibre 588 found in the 3350—but an evolved one, with an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring and silicon pallet lever, though it maintains the traditional 2.5Hz beat rate.

The Classique Tourbillon 7357 is available as two references: one with a platinum case and grey dial (RM789,600) for a cool, contemporary look; and one with a Breguet gold case and silver dial (RM717,800) for something more classically luxe. Both join the current collection as mainstays.

Breguet