HANDS-ON: Watching Watches: Breguet NYC
Today, The Watch Adviser took a look at some watches over at the new Fifth Avenue Breguet Boutique in New York City. The boutique is a larger, more spacious take on the original Madison Avenue boutique, plus it’s neighbors with Omega, another Swatch Group brand. The boutique features the entire lineup, ranging from the most basic dress watches from the Classique Collection to some of the most complicated, highly jeweled works of art in the world. Naturally, I chose to try on some of the more traditional timepieces, the ones that struck me more than anything else. My selection included three wristwatches: the Classique Grand Complication Ref. 5327BA, the Classique Complications Ref. 3755PR, and the Classique Complications Ref. 7637BB
The Classique Grand Complication Ref. 5327BA is a fine wristwatch of unparalleled quality. The extra-thin case and movement are crafted out of exquisite materials and hand-engraved to give the piece Breguet’s signature look. As for most of what Breguet offers, the client has a variety to choose from when it comes to metals. The watch is available in yellow gold, white gold, pink gold, and, the most precious metal, platinum. The complications included in this model are a full perpetual calendar that displays the day, date, month, leap years, and age and phases of the moon. To greaten the enjoyment of this watch for the astute aficionado, Breguet added an exhibition sapphire caseback. What’s the price you’d have to pay for this understated masterpiece? $69,600, a price quite reasonable for the value you’re getting.
The second pick of the day was the Classique Complications Reference 3755PR, a watch as complicated as the 5327BA, except with the addition of Breguet’s arguably most famous invention, the tourbillon (your gonna have to dig in your wallet a bit further, $165,600 further). This wristwatch, also with Breguet’s precisely designed, hand-wound, and hand-engraved movement in pink gold, features a full perpetual calendar (the main complication of this piece), small seconds on the tourbillon shaft, and a fifty-hour power reserve. This updated, but classic movement, just in case you wondering, is known as the calibre 558 QPSQ.
The last pick of the day, really needs no introduction. The Breguet Classique Complications reference 7637BB is an exceptional timepiece, something I, or no one else, may even be worthy of writing about. This watch is just so…wow, yeah that’s the word. Anyway, take a look for yourself and you'll know what I mean by wow.
I knew you'd think that was one hundred percent wow.
Luke Rottman (Executive Editor: thewatchadviser.com)