It was 1802 when Abraham-Louis Breguet was working on a series of five timepieces featuring innovations to improve precision – particularly a tourbillon associated with a natural escapement. Continuing that tradition of innovation, the brand has released the Classique 7225 equipped with a magnetic-pivot balance and a high-frequency escapement of 10 Hz. The magnetic pivot balance was patented on November 8, 2010, and is already used in the 2014 GPHG award winning watch, the Classique Chronométrie 7727. It is a mechanism that uses two small magnets placed on either side of the balance staff that lets it spin freely without creating much friction with the pivots. Also, in the event of an external shock, the magnetic flux between the magnets will put the balance staff back in its position without its precision being affected, and provide an unhindered frequency of 10 Hz, making the watch extremely precise. 

A first for the maison, there is a newly designed escape-wheel and pinion, featuring a phenakistoscope-type kinematic animation, the rotation of which displays 20 images per second, enabling two inscriptions – ‘1775’ and ‘2025’ – to appear in turn, switching with a seamless ‘morphing’ effect. 

Aesthetically, the Classique 7225 carries forward the DNA of its celebrated predecessor. There are central hours and minutes, a fan-shaped power-reserve indicator at 6 o’clock, now extended from 35 to 60 hours, and twin small seconds subdials symmetrically positioned at 2 o’clock and 10 o’clock. These dual small seconds displays aren’t merely decorative — they serve a precise chronometric purpose, rooted in A.-L. Breguet’s original invention of Ref. 1176 from 1809. The 7225 distinguishes itself through its ‘return-to-zero’ mechanism, allowing one seconds hand to reset instantaneously while maintaining continuous operation. Functionally, the traditional small seconds at 2 o’clock maintains a constant sweep throughout the power reserve, while the ‘observation’ small seconds at 10 o’clock features a flyback function, activated via the pusher at 8 o’clock. This complication enables the measurement of intermediate intervals, a direct nod to the 1820 Breguet invention that laid the foundation for the modern chronograph. 

On the 41 mm dial, the 18-karat plate is adorned with hand-guilloché with ‘Quai de l’Horloge’ motif all over it. The circular brushed chapter ring in the centre features Roman numerals as hour markers. The sub-dials are finished in flinqué guilloché motif. There are Breguet blue hollow-tipped hands marking hours and minutes and Blued seconds and power-reserve hands sitting on the sub-dials. Caliber 74SC powers the watch offering a powered reserve of 60 hours. 

The caseback is engraved with ‘BREGUET 250 YEARS’ and is customisable. The watch comes dressed in a navy blue large-scaled alligator leather strap and joins the current collection. 

The Classique 7235 is a reinterpretation of the historic No. 5 watch, currently displayed at the Breguet Museum on Place Vendôme, Paris. Its dial features central hours and minutes, a power reserve between 10 and 11 o’clock, a moon phase at 2 o’clock, and small seconds at 5 o’clock. It is crafted entirely in 18-Karat Breguet gold, with a hand-guilloché dial featuring the ‘Quai de l’Horloge’ motif. The small seconds, power-reserve arc, and dial rim bear the same motif in circular form, differentiated by satin-brushed inserts. The moon at 2 o’clock, crafted in Breguet gold, replicates the moon of No. 5 watch. The bevelled dial — thinner at the edge than at the centre — introduces a delicate slope that visually lightens the bezel and harmonises with the spherical sapphire crystal, yielding a silhouette of quiet perfection.

Beneath this beats the newly developed Calibre 502.3.DRL, a self-winding movement equipped with a silicon balance spring. The movement is remarkably slim at 3.95 mm, thanks to an offset oscillating weight. The result of this is a case measuring 9.9 mm in height, proportioned within a 39 mm case. It features the same curved lugs of the Souscription model launched earlier this year. For the first time in a Breguet wristwatch, the case middle is hand-guilloché with the Quai de l’Horloge motif, replacing the traditional fluting. On the reverse, a wide sapphire caseback unveils a breathtaking hand-engraved ‘Turgot map’ — the Paris map depicting the Quai de l’Horloge, where the maison’s workshops were located. Paired with a navy blue large-scaled alligator leather strap, it is a limited edition watch of 250 pieces.