Montres Breguet opens a new embassy in Zurich

On December 9th 2010, Montres Breguet is inaugurating a new boutique on one of Zurich’s most prestigious shopping avenues. After Geneva, Paris, Moscow, New York and Shanghai, to mention but a few, the brand is consolidating its worldwide presence by taking its place on the famous Bahnhofstrasse.

The Breguet watch collections are presented in an exclusive new 420m 2 three-floor showcase highlighting the brand’s values and expertise within a plush, elegant atmos phere. The ambiance pervading the premises stems from an architectural and aesthetic concept focused on refinement and understatement. The design gives pride of place to the inimitable Breguet attributes, and each and every detail serves to accentuate the beauty of the watches on display. The engraved glass walls are inspired by the art of guilloché-work and their royal blue colour pays tribute to that of the “à tact” watch ordered by Empress Josephine in 1799. The anodised aluminium rods separating the various areas are reminiscent of the finely fluted pattern adorning the cases of Breguet timepieces. The recurrent elliptical motif on the floor and ceiling echo the iconic oval shape of the Reine de Naples watch, the first wristwatch created for Caroline Mur at by A.-L. Breguet in 1810.

Breguet Museum

On the upper floor, the Breguet Museum presents the history of a brand that has contributed through its decisive inventions and numerous patents to enriching the Swiss horological heritage and to building its international reputation.

Breguet undoubtedly possesses the finest treasures a Fine Watchmaking brand could ever dream of. Its creations have consistently exercised a powerful fascination on the world ’s most eminent figures, and the long list of patrons includes such stellar names as Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander the 1st, Winston Churchill, Queen Marie -Antoinette, as well as Louis XVIII and Sergei Rachmaninov. The brand has established itself over the centuries as synonymous with beauty, prestige and elegance.

Perpetuating this legacy, the Breguet museum in the Zurich boutique hosts a collection of historical pieces acquired over the past ten years under the impetus of Nicolas G. Hayek, acquired at auction and stemming from institutions and private collections. After this journey to the past, a more intimate lounge area enables visitors to take time to savour the historical atmosphere of the place by leafing through various books on the brand.

Minute-repeating watch, subsidiary seconds Double-sided watch, silver and gold engine-turned case at 6 o’clock, gold case with pierced and with crystals on each side, silver pendant, gold bow; engraved enamel back, enamel dial, white enamel dial on recto with one hand and chapter- straight-line lever escapement. ring marked in ten-minute intervals, white enamel dial Diameter: 48 mm. on verso with inking chronograph Fatton system, chapter ring marked in ten-second intervals plus a ten- minute subdial, lateral lever escapement, two-arm compensating balance wheel. Diameter : 62 mm.

Breguet Manuscripts

The Breguet boutique in Zurich presents a world-first viewing of the A.-L. Breguet manuscripts acquired in May 2010 at an auction in Geneva. Customers and visitors to the boutique will be able to admire original manuscripts and to consult their transcriptions during a temporary exhibition.

Written by the great horologer himself, with the help of one of his associates, these texts doubtless constitute one of the most important testimonies in horological history. Now an integral part of the brand legacy, they are grouped into seven notebooks covering various themes, and which Breguet is considering publishing in due course.

Some ten years before his death, A.-L. Breguet had the idea of writing a horological treatise comprising two main chapters: civilian horology and horology dedicated to science, as a vibrant testimony to the evolution of watchmaking in general and of his own work in particular. It was intended to present all his achievements and innovations, from the simplest to the most complicated, from the subscription watch to the tourbillon mechanism, while also including his research on the escapement, the birth of the first self -winding or automatic watches known as “perpétuelles” along with a few secrets… Unfortunately, when A.-L. Breguet died in 1832, his work was far from completed. The notebooks acquired by the brand this year are probably, according to experts and historians, the only chapters to have reached an advanced state of drafting, almost ready to be published.

Notebook 1: Preliminary observations, the history of Breguet (24 pages)

Notebook 2: One -hand watches and the new repeater function (64 pages)

Notebook 3: Subscriptions and repeater mechanisms (92 pages)

Notebook 4: Perpétuelle watches and their minute repeater (28 pages)

Notebook 5: Equation of time, calendar and tourbillon mechanisms (52 pages)

Notebook 6: Maritime clocks and watches (32 pages)

Notebook 7: Marine chronometers, longitude watches and the Breguet overcoil balance-spring (62 pages)

Breguet workshop tour

The lower floor of the Breguet boutique reveals the talent of the artisans who work within the manufacture to create timepieces in harmony with the finest Swiss traditions. Alongside sophisticated equipme nt in the vanguard of modern technologies, over 30 hand -crafts representing the time-honoured expertise of the venerable House continue to perpetuate the art of Fine Watchmaking and serve as a vivid reminder that a Breguet watch is and will always be a unique composition stemming from the human mind and hand.

Interactive films on various themes invite visitors to immerse themselves into the secrecy of the Breguet workshops in the Vallée de Joux, where they can wander at leisure and at their own pace using a touch screen.

According to their successive choices, spectators can enjoy from ten minutes to up to one full hour of a truly fascinating show.

During these virtual peregrinations, they can discover the dexterity required by the age-old art of guilloché -work, or hand-engraving on a rose engine; the delicate touch required for enamelling;; the finesse of the bevelling, polishing , circular-graining and chasing operations that endow each component of a Breguet watch – however small and even those that re invisible once the timepiece is assembled – with a unique structure and radiance. Handed down from generation to generation, these virtuoso artistic professions are the guarantee of exceptional fine workmanship.

Breguet worldwide

Montres Breguet has own-name boutiques in Paris, Cannes, Geneva, Zurich, New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow, Vienna, Yekaterinburg, Dubai, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Taiwan, along with two recently opened ones on New York’s 5th Avenue and in Shenzhen.

The Breguet collections

Recognisable at first glance, a Breguet watch enshrines the expertise of a brand that places excellence at the very core of its philosophy. Through the famous Breguet attributes, each timepiece embodies the House values and philosophy. The finely hand-guilloché dials, the Breguet hands and numerals, the cases rimmed with a fluted pattern, and the welded lugs, are unmistakable symbols of elegance, refinement and understatement. The unique numbers and secret signatures also testify to the conc ern for excellence and exclusivity that characterise all Breguet creations.

The Breguet collection is composed of six major lines:

The CLASSIQUES represent the ideal face of time: eminently legible, accurate and pure. Whether ultra -thin hand-wound or self-winding models, or complicated watches, they all faithfully reflect the technical standards, the watchmaking art and the traditional values upheld by the Breguet brand.

The MARINE offers a contemporary interpretation of Breguet’s historical legacy. These watches are comfortable to wear and meet the expectations of a young, modern and dynamic clientele. Heirs to the timepieces developed by A.-L. Breguet for the French Royal Navy, they are designed to meet today’s demands.

The HÉRITAGE watches revisit a classical repertoire while transposing it to the 21st century. In addition to their characteristic curved tonneau shape, they are a perfect illustration of technical mastery: giving exactly the right curve to the Breguet case, and to the precious dial hand -engraved on a rose engine, represents a daunting challenge for the brand’s engineers, artisans and watchmakers. The case of the Héritage line highlights the elegant fluted pattern and the delicate shape of the strap lugs.

Designed in the 1950s for the Frenc h naval air arm, the TYPE XX chronographs have joined the Breguet collection in a contemporary civilian version with a mechanical self-winding movement. Their sporty style and their powerful personality immediately appealed to a demanding public looking for a pure, original and technical product. Equipped with the famous “Flyback” function that proves particularly useful in aviation contexts, TYPE XX comes in Aéronavale and Transatlantique, complete with date display.

Breguet watches have delighted and enc hanted illustrious female clients such as Marie -Antoinette, Queen of France, the Marchioness of

Condorcet, as well as Empress Josephine. The REINE DE NAPLES line, inspired by the first wristwatch A.-L. Breguet created for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810, is a perfect symbol of refinement and precision, an icon of femininity and a full-fledged piece of jewellery in its own right.

Extending a vibrant invitation to journey through and beyond time, the

TRADITION line pays eloquent tribute to the bran d memory. Its timepieces, inspired by the legendary subscription watches invented by A.-L. Breguet in 1796, symbolise both a return to roots and the vision of a brand resolutely looking to the future. Their pure aesthetic sets the stage for complications appearing above the main plate. In keeping with the spirit of hand -craftsmanship that prevailed two centuries ago, each and every part of their movement is sublimated by exquisite manual finishing.

Tradition tourbillon fusée-and-chain transmission, with Breguet overcoil in silicon 7047PT Handwound movement, with tourbillon and Breguet overcoil in silicon.

Type XXII 3880ST First and only series-made mechanical chronograph with a 10Hz frequency

Reine de Naples 8978BB With Sonnerie au passage

A rich and fascinating history

Exceptional expertise in the construction of haute horlogerie watches perpetuated since its creation in 1775, combined with a rich historical heritage, make Breguet a benchmark in the watchmaking world.

A.-L. Breguet: pivotal inventions

While undeniably the ultimate reference in the field of Haute Horlogerie, the Breguet brand is also part of our wider cultural heritage, a unique position it owes to the inventive spirit of its founder, A.-L. Breguet (1747- 1823), as well as to its contemporary watchmakers. A.L. Breguet was born in Neuchâtel, but it was in Paris that he spent most of a life filled with a variety of important inventions. Actively involved in all fields of horology, A. -L. Breguet began his career with a series of master strokes: developing the self -winding perpétuelle watch, the invention of gongs for minute repeaters, and then that of the first anti - shock device called the pare-chute. The Tourbillon undoubtedly symbolises the sheer genius of Breguet. On 26 June 1801, or rather on 7 Messidor Year 9 – since the French Republican calendar was still in force – A.-L. Breguet was granted a patent for this new type of regulator by the French Minister of the Interior.

But the story doesn’t end there: over the past 10 years, Montres Breguet SA, which is able to drawn upon the considerable resources, made available by the Swatch Group, has developed a new calibre each year, and registered over 80 patents. A number of research projects have been conducted on new materials in order to develop ever more efficient movements. Substantial investments have in particular enabled the development of silicon components for mechanical watch movements. By way of example, silicon escapements, which are more reliable and require less maintenance than those made from the current alloys have been used by Breguet since 2006 in “all-silicon” assortments as well as in “hybrid” assortment. In January 2010, Breguet presented the Tradition tourbillon fusée, with a Breguet balance-spring in silicon. Since silicon is less malleable than metal, the entire production process had to be reinvented in order to achieve such a result. The fabulous Type XXII is also a compendium of innovations: its movement oscillates at a rate of 72,000 vibrations per hour, meaning a frequency of 10Hz – yet another world-first made possible by silicon.

Famous patrons and writers

Breguet watches have found their way through the centuries on the wrists of prominent individuals: Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie- Antoinette and Arthur Rubinstein are just some of the many famous owners of Breguet timepieces. From Stendhal to Pushkin, and from Alexandre Dumas to surrealist writer Max Jacob, literature has raised the Breguet watch to cult status. Marking off the essential moments of Balzac’s Human Comedy, it has established itself over time as synonymous with refinement, luxury and creativity.

Testimonies to success Several recent events have propelled Breguet to the forefront of the cultural stage. For the past ten years, Montres Breguet has made a point of honour of engaging in various patronage activities that have led it to support prestigious institutions representing the European culture so deeply cherished by Breguet.

Thus in 2008, the Pe tit Trianon, the domain of Marie -Antoinette on the estate of the Château de Versailles, was restored to its former glory thanks to major renovation work funded by Montres Breguet.

In 2009, it was this same spirit of supporting art and culture that incite d Nicolas G. Hayek to invest in promoting a temporary exhibition of Breguet watches in the Louvre museum , in Paris. While bringing together an extraordinary variety of historical Breguet watches, including the Louvre collection and that of the Breguet museum, this exhibition also displayed certain masterpieces belonging to private collections.

This exhibition was accompanied by a patronage operation aimed at providing further support for the Louvre museum by funding restoration work on the Louis XIV wing. This exceptional grant of several million Euros enabled the complete renovation as well as a complete rearrangement of these museum rooms.

Finally, a number of musical institutions around the world also benefit from the support of Montres Breguet: the Lucerne Festival, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Geneva International Music Competition which provides talented young artists with a springboard towards an international solo career.