The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025, Celebrating the Brand’s 250th Anniversary

This year, one of the most important names in the watch industry is celebrating its 250th anniversary. I’m of course talking about Breguet, the brand created by the all-important Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1775, Quai de l’Horloge in Paris (even though he was Swiss, A.L. Breguet worked most of his life in Paris except during the French Revolution). Breguet was an inventor – the tourbillon, the pare-chute, possibly the first wristwatch, the gong-spring – and a pioneer of the concept of branding in watchmaking. So, with the 250th anniversary of the brand’s inception, we were expecting something big. And while this will surely come later, the first commemorative watch is inspired by something less grandiose, the simple but particularly important souscription pocket watches. Pure and focused, inspired by the past and yet modern, let’s take a closer look at the new Breguet Classique Souscription reference 2025. 

The souscription concept and pocket watches

Today, the historic and back then groundbreaking souscription pocket watch is reborn as a wristwatch. But what was the souscription pocket watch, and why is it as important as some of the great inventions of the brand’s founder? Well, as said, Abraham-Louis Breguet was not just a watchmaker with ideas ahead of his time, who created mechanisms such as the tourbillon. A.L. Breguet was also a wise, visionary businessman who somehow created one of the first watch brands, with a distinctive design and traits to stand out from the crowd – what we’ll later call Breguet’s unmistakable signs (the Breguet hands, the Breguet numerals, the fluted bands, the guilloché dials, the hidden signature to protect his brand from counterfeiters). But this also led him to have a business-oriented vision for his company.

While he was back in his country of birth, Switzerland, during the French Revolution (from 1793 to 1795), A.L. Breguet saw the need to grow his business but also to make it more stable. Manufacturing multiple watches without them being sold in advance means having solid finances… To counter that, Breguet had a daring commercial idea: an apparently simple timepiece accompanied by a marketing method named souscription (subscription in English). By paying a quarter of the price when the order was placed, customers enabled Breguet to organise its production and pay its craftsmen in advance – something unprecedented back then in watchmaking – but also with an almost standardised series of watches. Finally, the watch was also the subject of an advertising pamphlet, a real innovation for the time, so Breguet could address its potential customers directly. It was as much a watchmaking innovation as a reinvention of the selling methods.

In 1795, Breguet went back to Paris with many new ideas in mind, including this new commercial method. The first souscription pocket watches appear as early as 1796 in sales registers, even though mainly marketed from 1797 onwards. The watch was, compared to other creations of the man, simple and meant to be an object for daily use, with a reliable movement. This 61mm pocket watch had a white enamel dial and a movement with a relatively simple architecture – no complications – with a single-hand display. Around 700 timepieces were produced in this way over more than 30 years. Most were made of gold with a finely guilloched caseband.

The movement of most models was characterised by its large central barrel and triangular stepped bridges, with an entirely gilt finish. It features multiple practical features, such as temperature compensation for the carbon steel balance spring, shock protection for the balance pivots (Breguet’s pare-chute) and a ruby cylinder escapement. There was no top cover but only a crystal over a white enamel dial with a single blued steel hand, pointing at a 5-minute divided track with classic Breguet numerals. A secret signature was usually found below the 12 o’clock marker, engraved on the enamel’s surface with a pantograph. There is an interesting deconstruction to discover here at The Naked Watchmaker.

The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025

As said, the first watch created to celebrate Breguet’s 250th anniversary is a faithful tribute to the simple but important souscription pocket watches, transformed into an elegant wristwatch. But besides the unmistakable resemblance to these antique models, there are some things to say about this Classique Souscription 2025, a watch that feels both extremely Breguet and yet moves away from certain codes we’ve come to expect in recent years. What’s undeniable is the connection, both design-wise and mechanically, with the old souscription pocket watches, as you can see below.

Let’s start with the case. The Classique Souscription is a modern, elegant watch with a classic appeal. It measures a relatively compact 40mm in diameter, with a thickness of 10.8mm – not the most compact nor the thinnest, but the whole point wasn’t to create a tuxedo-style timepiece here, but to bring the same spirit of simplicity and restrained elegance as the old pocket watches. What strikes most is the actual design of the watch, which feels like a strong departure from all current Classique models. Here, you won’t find the usual fluted caseband and soldered straight lugs with screw bars.

Instead, the case of the Classique Souscription has a more traditional 3-part construction with lugs integrated within the middle case, the latter being satin-brushed on the flanks, with lug tips that end with an almost teardrop shape (there’s a bit of Laurent Ferrier in this smooth style). These, however, offer better ergonomics than the traditional straight lugs, and a better fit on the wrist. A polished domed bezel frames a sapphire crystal with a “chevé” profile – a reference to another innovative style of Breguet, with a crystal that was thinner and less domed than others, with a relatively flat surface and a bevel on the edge. The back brings classic guilloché around the see-through caseback.

Modernity hasn’t been forgotten – specifically since the new CEO, Gregory Kissling, is well known to have been behind most of the recent innovations at Omega. The case of the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 is bringing a new alloy to the brand, named Breguet gold. Composed of 75% gold, this yellow gold alloy is enriched with silver, copper and palladium to ensure its resistance to discolouration and its stability over time. It also has a specific brilliance and a slightly more muted yellow hue than classic yellow gold – not that different from Moonshine gold used at Omega (coincidentally… or not)

As for the dial of this Breguet Classique Souscription, the resemblance to the antique models is strong. This new watch features basically a reduced version of the dial found on old souscription pocket watches – including the layout, display and materials. The dial is made of white grand feu enamel over a gold base, with black, petit feu enamel Breguet logo, Breguet Arabic numerals and minute track – the latter being modelled after that of the pocket watch with the same sectoring indicating the hours and the 5, 10, 15 and 30-minute markings. Next to the minute track are classic and highly elegant, slightly inclined Breguet Arabic numerals.

This clean face features a single hand, like the old souscription watches did, with a steel, open-tipped Breguet hand, which has been flame-blued and curved by hand. Reading the time is reasonably precise, as with all single-hand watches, but here the legibility and contrast are great. A nice tribute to the past can be found, at least in certain light conditions, at 6 o’clock… Just like old models, the Classique Souscription features a secret Breguet signature with the inscriptions “Souscription”, the unique serial number, and the Breguet logo discreetly appearing. And like in the old days, it is here still produced traditionally using a precision tool equipped with articulated arms: the diamond-point pantograph, which makes it possible to delicately engrave this signature into the enamel.

Turning the watch over reveals a beautifully designed movement, once again faithfully recreating the look of the movement found in the souscription watches. Of course, not only has the size been reduced (35.6mm x 5.7mm) compared to the pocket watches, but some modernity has been brought… But with a deep respect for the antique models. The brass-made calibre VS00 is built around a large central ratchet, held in place by an oversized triangular bridge, with two additional stepped bridges for the first wheel and the balance wheel, and two smaller triangular bridges for the gear train – overall, a style that’s identical to what Breguet has done with the Tradition collection, as the calibre VS00 shares its technical base with these watches.

This hand-wound movement relies on a large, single barrel that delivers a 96-hour power reserve, with a regulating organ beating at 3Hz. The balance spring is made from non-magnetic Nivachron (a titanium-based alloy), is blued and features a Breguet overcoil. The balance pivots include a modern anti-shock device that’s been shaped like an old pare-chute (again, shared with the Tradition models), and the wheels have a classic Breguet 5-spoke design. The movement’s finishing is in line with the old pocket watches, with the brass bridges and plate being finely shot-blasted, and the movement is gilded in the same shade as Breguet gold. The decoration also includes polished bevels, heat-blued screws and various engravings – hand-engraved Breguet and number of the watch, as well as a text on the central ratchet wheel (the founder’s words, explaining the design of the Souscription movement and taken from his advertising brochure).

The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 is worn on a navy blue large-scaled alligator leather, with a discreet gradient effect, and closed by an 18k Breguet gold pin buckle. It is delivered in a new presentation box that pays tribute to the red Moroccan leather cases once used by A.-L. Breguet, with the individual serial number and logo on top.

Availability & Price

The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 (reference 2025BH/28/9W6) is not released as a limited edition but will join the permanent collection. It will be priced at CHF 45,000 (incl. taxes) or EUR 52,800 (incl. taxes). In short, a very nice start for the 250th anniversary celebrations… For more details, please visit breguet.com.