Established in 2005, Breguet’s Tradition collection pays tribute to the one-handed “souscription” pocket watches invented by founder Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1796 and their successors. As a main piece of the brand’s history, the collection received another new addition earlier this year with a blue update of the Tradition Quantième Rétrograde 7597. The new model is emblematic of the collection with a monochrome azure dial and anthracite-clad movement.
The exterior of the watch is white gold, measuring 40mm with a lovely exhibition caseback. The case silhouette features familiar fluted sides and a screw-in corrector at 10 o’clock to set the date. To complement the cool tone of the steel, the watch is presented on a midnight blue alligator leather strap that is secured by two wide-set, thin lugs. The delicacy of the lugs combined with the refined curvature of the main case give the watch an elegant appearance, creating an engaging contrast in the context of the machine-oriented dial.
At first glance, the dial is occupied mainly with the watch’s interior anthracite-clad mechanics, putting them on display through a majority-skeletonized layout. At the 12 o’clock position is the focal point of the display, with the hours-and-minutes sub-dial executed in a blue-toned gold. The design of the sub-dial, alongside the rest of the timepiece, works to recall early Breguet “souscription” and tact watches created by Abraham Louis Breguet in the 18th century— with Roman numeral hours, an engine-turned Clous de Paris pattern, and classical Breguet hands each recalling historic styles from the watchmaker.
Balancing out the aesthetic of the dial is a retrograde date scale stretching between 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions, with an elegantly curved hand indicating the date as it moves in a vertical plane. A patented mechanism provides for a fine adjustment of this hand, whose multi-tiered shape, allows it to sweep over the movement components. The hand, while precisely functional, is also blued to match the colorway of the watch, creating a rich tone that is effortlessly elegant.
Powering the watch is the 505Q self-winding movement. As in Breguet’s historical subscription watches, the large barrel is topped by a symmetrically arranged gear train, and the center wheel at 8 o’clock triggers the similarly sized oscillating mechanism at 4 o’clock. The oscillator is enhanced with another early Breguet innovation, featuring a novel pare-chute device for anti-shock protection, which further serves as a hallmark of the Tradition collection.
The Breguet Tradition Quantième Rétrograde 7597 in blue is available via the brand’s boutiques and authorized retailers, with pricing marked at $38,600.
To learn more, visit Breguet, here.
