Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Abraham-Louis Breguet moved to Versailles at the age of fifteen to begin an apprenticeship with a relative of his stepfather. A highly gifted student, he later relocated to Paris, where he established himself as a watchmaker. In 1775, he founded his workshop on the Île de la Cité, at the Quai de l’Horloge.
As early as 1780, he brought to life a system he had been developing for many years: a mechanism that allowed a watch to wind itself automatically – providing undeniable convenience to its wearer, who no longer needed to wind it with a key. These first self-winding watches, known as “Perpétuelles,” were fitted with a movement featuring a platinum oscillating weight and a double barrel. Although Breguet was not the inventor of the automatic watch, he was certainly the first to offer a reliable system.
Thanks to this innovation, which became highly popular – especially at the royal court – young Breguet quickly gained fame and a prestigious clientele and was introduced at court.
The French Revolution of 1789 changed everything: his business declined, and he feared for his life during the Reign of Terror. For that reason, he returned to Switzerland from 1793 to 1795.
Abraham-Louis Breguet.
Souscription watch (© Breguet).
According to the Heritage Department of the Manufacture, it was during his stay in Switzerland that Breguet imagined several inventions, including the tourbillon. However, another, more urgent matter preoccupied him: the Revolution had eliminated many of his aristocratic clients, so he needed to find a new audience to sustain his workshop and finances.
The first conclusion was clear – he needed to offer watches at a more affordable price, meaning simpler watches. Second, to reduce costs, production should be serial rather than bespoke as before. Finally, with his Paris workshop looted and his business in ruins, he needed a better financing method than borrowing from banks.
These three challenges would become a turning point in the early history of the brand and reveal other sides of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s genius.
He imagined an extremely simplified watch – quite the opposite of his usual highly complex creations. This became the Souscription Watch, equipped with a single hand to indicate the time.
To finance the project, he devised a subscription system: buyers would pay one-quarter of the total price (600 livres) upon order and the balance upon delivery. This was accompanied by another unprecedented idea – printed sales catalog describing the watch, the subscription process, and Breguet’s commitments to subscribers, including the delivery timelines.
The Souscription watch in detail
This pocket watch had a diameter of 61 mm – large enough for the single hand (the now-famous “Breguet hand” or “pomme hand”) to indicate the time with an accuracy of about one minute, as Breguet himself noted in his brochure, quoted in Breguet 250 Years – La Montre de Souscription:
“This size of dial provides sufficient distance between each hour marker to include twelve divisions, each separated by five minutes, allowing one to estimate the time to within a minute.”
Despite the aim of standardization, Breguet introduced several variations in case design.
Initially, the double-opening case was made of silver with gold bands on the sides – sometimes smooth, sometimes engine-turned. A gold version, priced at 800 livres, soon appeared and became so popular that it overtook the silver model by 1800.
The dial was white enamel, adorned with Breguet numerals – the epitome of pure design with its single hand. A subtle yet important detail was discreetly placed beneath the number 12: a secret signature, invisible to the naked eye, to combat counterfeiting – a problem even then.
Secret signature (© Breguet).
Who better than Abraham-Louis Breguet himself to describe the movement (excerpt from Breguet 250 Years – The Souscription Watch):
“The layout of the train, the escapement, the regulator, the temperature compensator are all so exposed and easy to grasp that any attentive observer can, at a glance and without removing a single part, judge the harmony of the workmanship and the reliability of its performance… The mainspring possesses twice the elasticity of that in any other watch… The regulator, that essential component in a timekeeping machine, is suspended in a special cage, so well isolated that no imperfection can escape the artist who examines it…”
Souscription watch (© Breguet).
To achieve greater slimness, Breguet asked his usual glassmaker to design a new shape of crystal, called “chevé”, with a flat surface and curved edges – a novelty for the time.
Over the course of production, some smaller versions were made – medium-sized (50 mm) or medallion-sized (40 mm) – with guilloché gold or silver dials.
The first examples were delivered in 1796, and production continued until around 1820, totaling about 700 pieces, including about a hundred “tact watches” built on the same principle.
Ultimately, the Souscription Watch project proved profitable and allowed Breguet to fund his research into the “scientific” watches he envisioned.
What began as a financial crisis became the foundation for the company’s survival -through a simple yet functional, repairable watch and through serial production paired with ingenious marketing and sales strategies.
Classique Souscription 2025 (© Breguet).
For the first stage of its anniversary world tour, Breguet fittingly began in Paris, Place Vendôme, with the launch of the Classique Souscription 2025, a timepiece strongly inspired by the 1796 Souscription watch.
Though at first unexpected, this choice makes perfect sense – it symbolizes one of the most pivotal, even lifesaving, chapters in Breguet’s history.
This new creation reinterprets many of the aesthetic codes of that era, combining them with today’s standards and technology.
Given its nature, it was crucial to set a diameter that would allow legibility with a single hand. A wristwatch of 61 mm was, of course, unthinkable, so the chosen dimensions are 40 mm in diameter and 11 mm in thickness.
Another difference lies in the lugs, which have evolved from Breguet’s traditional straight style to more curved, rounded shapes for improved ergonomics on the wrist. The caseband is smooth – unlike most current Breguet models – a deliberate choice to evoke the finishing of the earliest Souscription pieces, even though many were guilloché.
A notable innovation comes from CEO Gregory Kissling and his team: they developed a new gold alloy closely resembling the tone of Breguet’s historical cases. Simply named “Breguet gold,” this 18K alloy consists of 75% yellow gold, 10% silver, and the remainder palladium and copper. Beyond its distinct hue, it offers excellent scratch resistance and is ideal for decorative crafts such as guilloché.
New gold alloy (© Breguet).
Like its ancestor, the crystal is chevé-shaped, but now made of sapphire for better scratch resistance.
The dial continues the tradition of grand feu enamel, with black petit feu enamel Breguet arabic numerals and the discreet “secret signature” under the 12 – engraved using an 18th-century pantograph.
18th-century pantograph (© Breguet).
The dial features the blued-steel pomme Breguet hand.
Blued-steel pomme hand (© Breguet).
Turning the watch over reveals a sapphire caseback showcasing the new Calibre VS00, visually very similar to the original Souscription movement, and decorated exactly like the 18th-century ébauches.
The movement is gold-toned brass matching the hue of Breguet Gold. It beats at 3 Hz (21,600 vph) and provides a 96-hour power reserve. The plate bears the individual number of each watch in this unlimited series. The large central barrel recalls the original, engraved in cursive with a passage from the historic sales catalog.
New Calibre VS00 (© Breguet).
The solid portion of the caseback is crafted in Breguet Gold and, alongside the usual Breguet engravings (reference and serial number), features a new guilloché pattern called “Quai de l’Horloge.”
Caseback and movement (© Breguet).
Each watch is delivered, as in the past, in a red presentation box stamped in gold with “BREGUET 250 YEARS” and bearing its individual number.
Breguet 250 Years box (© Breguet).
