From 1775 to Today Breguet Makes Every Second Count in Style
Breguet marks 250 years with two Classique creations that fuse heritage, precision and elegance in truly timeless form.
Very few watchmakers truly deserve the label of timeless, yet Breguet continues to demonstrate that heritage and innovation can exist in perfect balance.
For its 250th anniversary, the maison unveils two Classique timepieces that embody its founding principles of precision, clarity and understated grandeur: the Classique 7225 and the limited edition Classique 7235.
Breguet Classique Régulateur à Pivot Magnétique 7225. Credit: Breguet
The 7225 is a mechanical marvel designed for those who value substance over spectacle. Its 10 Hz movement uses a magnetic pivot system to stabilise the balance staff within an invisible magnetic field, turning what was once a watchmaker’s worst enemy into a precision tool.
The result is a daily deviation of just one second, a feat that places the piece among the most accurate mechanical watches ever built.
On the dial, Breguet’s artisans have added a poetic touch: a phenakistoscope animation hidden in the escapement flashes the years 1775 and 2025 at a mesmerising twenty frames per second, celebrating the maison’s quarter-millennium without overt display.
Twin small seconds subdials reference an 1809 Breguet pocket watch, with one counter functioning as an “observation seconds” that instantly resets for timing short intervals. It is elegant, purposeful and deeply Breguet.
The 41 mm case in Breguet gold bears a hand-guilloché pattern inspired by the Quai de l’Horloge, the founder’s Parisian address. Through the sapphire caseback, Calibre 74SC reveals its double silicon balance spring and exquisite hand finishing; contemporary watchmaking at its purest form.
If the 7225 speaks to Breguet’s technical intellect, the 7235 expresses its poetic side. Limited to just 250 pieces, this self-winding timepiece reinterprets the maison’s 1794 “No. 5” pocket watch.
The asymmetrical dial layout, with central hours and minutes, moonphase at two, and a power reserve at ten, retains the charm of its ancestor while radiating modern refinement.
Inside beats the ultra-thin Calibre 502.3 DRL, a mere 3.95 mm thick thanks to its off-centred rotor, ensuring the case remains a perfectly balanced 39 mm across and under 10 mm tall.
The dial and case middle are hand-guilloché with the same Quai de l’Horloge motif, while the caseback reveals an engraving of the historic Turgot map of Paris, a tribute to the birthplace of horological enlightenment.
Together, the 7225 and 7235 show that Breguet’s anniversary is not about nostalgia but continuity. One pushes the science of precision forward; the other reminds us that beauty in horology is often a question of proportion, restraint and narrative.
For collectors who understand that true luxury lies in permanence, Breguet’s 250-year celebration is less a commemoration than a reaffirmation of what fine watchmaking was, and what it still can be.
