Meet The Breguet 250th Anniversary Classique Souscription 2025 Watch

In celebration of its 250th anniversary, Breguet has unveiled the Classique Souscription 2025 wristwatch: a refined, single-hand timepiece that reinterprets one of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s most visionary designs. Launching on an order-only basis, the watch honors the historic Souscription model with a newly developed movement, a grand feu enamel dial, and a newly created gold alloy called Breguet gold.

Originally introduced in the late 1790s, the Souscription watch was a groundbreaking initiative by Breguet to broaden access to fine watchmaking. Sold through an early form of subscription, it required buyers to pay a deposit upfront, funding series production. The design featured a simplified, legible architecture—a hallmark of Breguet’s pragmatic genius. While the historic pieces were large pocket watches, the new anniversary edition distills their essence into a 40mm wristwatch.

Housed in a 40 mm case crafted from 18K Breguet gold, a proprietary alloy with a warm hue unique to the brand, the watch exhibits meticulous attention to detail. The satin-brushed case middle contrasts with the polished bezel and lugs, while the sapphire crystal — cut in a “chevé” profile — is treated with an anti-reflective coating on both sides for optimal legibility. The display caseback reveals a finely hand-guilloché “Quai de l’Horloge” motif and is engraved with “BREGUET 250 YEARS,” further anchoring the watch in its commemorative context.

At the heart of the watch beats the new Calibre VS00, a manually wound movement developed for this anniversary piece. Measuring 5.7 mm thick and composed of 144 components, the calibre is signed and numbered Breguet, and is treated in a golden tone that harmonizes with the case. It features a patented Nivachron™ balance spring with a Breguet overcoil, offering enhanced resistance to magnetic fields and shocks. The movement beats at 3 Hz (21,600 vibrations per hour) and delivers an impressive 96-hour power reserve, stored in a single barrel. A subtle nod to the brand’s founder appears on the ratchet wheel, engraved in negative with a reprography of A.-L. Breguet’s own handwriting.

The dial is pure classical Breguet: a white grand feu enamel surface executed on a gold base, adorned with black petit feu enamel Arabic numerals and a rail-track minute scale. A single, open-tipped Breguet hand — curved by hand, flame-blued, and mirror-polished — circles the dial to indicate the hours and minutes with a poetic margin of two minutes’ resolution. Engraved by diamond-point pantograph, the inscriptions “Souscription,” the individual serial number, and Breguet’s secret signature add both authenticity and historical continuity.

While visually restrained, the watch’s artistry lies in its craft. The caseback, dial, and movement bridges are all finished by hand, with fine shot-blasting, engraving, and guilloché techniques that speak to the enduring importance of traditional decorative horology at Breguet.

For the first time, the case is crafted from a proprietary alloy dubbed Breguet gold. Composed of gold, silver, copper, and palladium, this subtly pink 18K material was developed to match the warmth and durability of the gold alloys used in Breguet’s own era. Measuring 40mm in diameter and 10.8mm thick, the case features a satin-brushed middle section and redesigned curved lugs for improved wearability.

Completing the look is a hand-stitched alligator leather strap, secured with an 18K Breguet gold pin buckle — the finishing touch to a timepiece that speaks softly yet confidently of its legacy. The watch retails for CHF 45,000.