Breguet’s 250th Anniversary Came With A Host Of Intriguing Timepieces

Round-number anniversaries are always a big deal—and the rounder, the bigger and more significant. Two hundred and fifty is a particularly round number and, for a watchmaker, it is also unusually large. Breguet, having been founded in 1775, is one of the oldest watch names in the business—and the most celebrated as well, with its progenitor Abraham-Louis Breguet being one of the most important figures in the craft of watchmaking.

And it was a big year indeed for Breguet, but not just for splashy, high-profile celebratory shindigs. The brand has been something of a sleeping giant of late, but last year saw a concerted, strategic set of releases that leveraged its illustrious history in a way that has been lacking in recent years—while also including plenty of innovation. Here, we present every one of Breguet’s mostly limited-edition releases from 2025, and why each one is significant.

Classique Souscription 2025

It might seem like an unassuming timepiece—a white enamel-dialled dress watch in the classical mould, 40mm in diameter, and equipped with a single hand—but the Classique Souscription 2025 had a tremendous impact when it was launched last April. A thoughtful homage to the original Souscription watches that Abraham-Louis Breguet produced around the year 1800, it was all about the details—the near-invisible pantograph signature on the dial, for example, created with vintage tools and machinery in very much the same manner as they would have been 200 years ago.

Inside, the newly developed movement has a layout that bears a striking resemblance to those old pocket watch movements as well. It was, in other words, a top-to-bottom homage to the brand’s early era—rarely do we see this done in such complete fashion—and tempered through the lens of modern techniques and wristwatch stylings. It is the sort of homage that would be incredibly well-received by the die-hard collectors, enthusiasts, and purists, and, indeed, the Souscription was awarded the ‘Aiguille d’Or’—the top prize at the 2025 GPHG awards—marking it as one of the year’s most notable releases across the entire industry.

Tradition Second Rétrograde 7035

Launched in 2005, the Tradition collection’s main calling card is its movement layout, with geartrain and balance wheel symmetrically arranged on the dial side and exposed for viewing. This layout is also a callback to the Souscription watches, though presented in a much more contemporary, skeletonised format. Sized at 38mm, an increasingly attractive prospect for today’s collectors, its case and parts of the movement are made out of the new Breguet Gold—a proprietary 18k gold alloy that includes silver, copper, and palladium, resulting in a warm, pinkish hue with anti-corrosive properties. This alloy was a recurring theme throughout the 2025 releases and, in fact, made its debut with the Classique Souscription 2025.

Type XX Chronographe 2075

Although the lion’s share of Breguet’s heritage dates back to the pre-industrial era, one must not forget its more modern history with pilot’s watches—nor that Abraham-Louis’ great-great-grandson, Louis Breguet, was an aviation pioneer in the early part of the 20th century. In 2023, the brand revived the Type XX, shining a light on its two-register chronographs designed for military use in the 1950s. Two years later, and the contemporary collection has already evolved—the Type XX Chronographe 2075 seems to cater more towards today’s purist collectors. Its case, now in Breguet Gold, has been downsized to a vintage-accurate 38mm, and the date window has been dropped—changes that will keep those collectors coming back for more.

Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255

The best-known of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s inventions, as far as modern horology goes, is the tourbillon. Patented in 1801 as a device meant to increase daily timekeeping precision, it is today revered as one of the most iconic complications, its continuous revolution an ode to mechanical movement and artistry. This watch, then, is dedicated to a brand-new tourbillon movement—and is, believe it or not, the manufacture’s first flying tourbillon. This means that the mechanism has only a single anchor point from the bottom, making it easier to admire.

Additionally, it is also a ‘mysterious’ design, a classic method of making something appear as if it floats midair. The lower bridge and support of the tourbillon carriage are made of sapphire crystal—transparent and, in this context, invisible. For good measure, this timepiece also features Breguet’s first-ever aventurine dial.

Marine Hora Mundi 5555

The Marine collection is one of Breguet’s more recent, beginning in 1990, but its inspiration is the marine chronometry that Abraham-Louis engaged in when he was appointed Watchmaker to the French Royal Navy in 1815. An often practical and travel-minded line-up, one of the Marine’s unique calling cards is the Hora Mundi. It is equipped with calibre 77F1, protected by several patents and hosting a unique dual-time mechanism wherein one can select a ‘home’ and a ‘local’ timezone, and toggle the hour hand between them on demand.

For 2025, the Hora Mundi 5555 adds a layer of fine artistry over this practical travel watch. The dial consists of two layers: a gold base with gradated blue colouring and guilloche pattern styled after longitude and latitude lines on a map; and a translucent upper layer hand-painted in miniature enamel to depict the Earth as it might look from space at night. On the underside of the glass, the continents are rendered in exquisite detail, and set off by phosphorescent enamel dots to represent more populated and well-lit regions. On the top, a wispy layer of clouds adds an extra note of depth.

Reine de Naples

When the original Reine de Naples timepieces were created between 1810 and 1812 for Emperor Napoleon I’s sister, they may, in fact, have been the first-ever watches deliberately designed for the wrist. As a contemporary collection, Reine de Naples has long been Breguet’s feminine signature, a gently curved oblong case that stands for luxe elegance. For the brand’s 250th anniversary, it released two references that featured a subtly updated design language across a range of executions.

Reference 9935 sports a new movement, with a moonphase indicator at 12 o’clock, which is the first time that the collection has seen one without a power reserve indicator. The result is a larger, more visible complication with a purer aesthetic. Also new are the six pear-shaped diamonds set amongst the hour indicators. Reference 8925, meanwhile, is an exercise in minimalism—the offset dial shows only hour and minute, with the only other adornments being a pear-shaped diamond at 12 o’clock, next to the manufacture’s signature.

Later in the year, Breguet would also unveil two additional high jewellery Reine de Naples pieces, flexing its artisanal might. The Crazy Flower features lavish petal-like layers, paved with baguette-cut diamonds, that border the dial—itself entirely paved also. The second is Perles Impériales; here, the paved dial is bordered by an elaborate latticework that is crowned with diamonds in its own unique setting, while the star of the show is the iconic Akoya pearl at 6 o’clock.

Classique 7225 & 7235

As much as Abraham-Louis Breguet was a technical innovator, he was visually avant-garde as well. This means that the contemporary Classique collection bears a striking resemblance to its centuries-ago forebears—sweeping visual updates are unnecessary in the face of timeless style. Indeed, two new references for the 250th anniversary, 7225 and 7235, are all guilloche backdrops, off-centre dials, and retrograde indicators—as well as Breguet-style hands, of course. They are unmistakably tracing the footsteps of a pair of pocket watches built between 1802-1809 and 1794, respectively. But there is contemporary innovation, too: the 7225 sports a high-frequency 10Hz movement with a magnetic pivot (a patented piece of technology that itself won the GPHG ‘Aiguille d’Or’ at its debut in 2014) and is rated to +/- 1s per day. Meanwhile, the 7235 sports a new, remarkably slim in-house movement with a silicon balance spring.

Classique Répétition Minutes 7365

In some ways, this was the simplest of the 250th anniversary releases—the 7365 is ‘just’ a minute repeater, in classical fashion. But beneath its blue grand feu enamel dial is an all-new movement that makes it the brand’s first-ever water-resistant minute repeater. The white gold gongs, a patented innovation, are attached directly to the case, while its optimised construction has resulted in a beefy 75-hour power reserve. Hand-wound and ticking at 3Hz, it combines the best of traditional sensibilities with cutting-edge technology, such as the silicon balance wheel—which imparts magnetic and temperature resistance, among other benefits—and an impressive +/- 2s per day precision.

Classique Grande Sonnerie 1905

Nearly all of today’s Breguet wristwatches are inspired by pocket watches, but here we have an actual pocket watch as a new release, and an ambitious one at that. The Classique Grande Sonnerie 1905 holds a complex 532-component movement that takes six months to assemble: a grand complication striker featuring minute repeater, grande and petite sonnerie functions, as well as a tourbillon. A cutting-edge twist is found in the magnetic regulator, which is a typically mechanical component that ensures even action of the striking hammers; Breguet’s innovation is, by comparison, silent and contactless. As a final point of intrigue, this timepiece is presented in a box that is made from the wood of an oak tree favoured by Marie-Antoinette, under which she used to walk; it was planted in 1681, before being felled due to storm damage in 2005.

Expérimentale 1

Breguet’s final move of the year was also one of its most impressive. The Expérimentale 1 heralds a new line from the brand, one intended to showcase its most avant-garde, R&D-focused elements. Callbacks to Breguet’s traditional aesthetic can be found here and there, but this timepiece is definitively forward-thinking.

The crux of it is its boundary-breaking movement. Harnessing magnetism has been something of a recurring theme for Breguet; here, the new calibre 7250 takes it to the next level by using a magnetic escapement. With two stacked escape wheels and magnets at each tip of the pallet fork, the result, through some design wizardry, is frictionless, impact-free, and ticking at 10Hz—especially impressive, considering it is equipped with a tourbillon—and constant-force, as well. The numbers speak for themselves: it is rated to +/- 1s per day.

It is this sort of innovation that truly pays tribute to Abraham-Louis Breguet, an incessant inventor of his day—and one that is a powerful statement of Breguet’s ability to play at the highest levels of horological accomplishment.

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