The Breguet Classique Souscription, now in Platinum

As most of you might remember, Breguet celebrated its 250th anniversary last year, and did so by releasing rather spectacular watches, from the ultra-elegant 7235, to the compact 38mm Type XX or the Experimentale 1, the range-topping model with its 10Hz high-frequency tourbillon and its constant force magnetic escapement. But the watch that started the celebrations, which is also the watch that won the GPHG 2025, was a deceptively simple watch, a single-hand timepiece inspired by the famous Souscription pocket watch. Now, the elegant Classique Souscription is back in platinum.

Let’s quickly look back at the Classique Souscription, the watch that started the celebrations of Breguet’s 250th anniversary. While Abraham-Louis Breguet, the brand’s founder, is mostly known for his innovations and complex watches, the model that probably made him the most successful was also his simplest watch, as well as a stroke of marketing genius before marketing even existed. The so-called Souscription pocket watch appeared in 1796, when Breguet went back to Paris after escaping to Switzerland due to the French Revolution. At that time, he needed to grow his business and to make it more stable, and thus imagined a more standardised model, as well as a new sales method: the subscription process. The timepiece itself was a 61mm pocket watch with a white enamel dial and a movement with a relatively simple architecture – no complications – and a single-hand display. Around 700 timepieces were produced in this way over more than 30 years.

The Breguet Classique Souscription 2025 was released as a direct transfer of most of the pocket watch’s characteristics into a wrist format. Besides the unmistakable resemblance to the antique models, the watch also interpreted the movement with an identical architecture – large central barrel and triangular stepped bridges – as well as the materials (enamel, gold), the single-hand display, and many of the old watch details, up to recreating a pantograph to sign the dial. The first edition was crafted in Breguet gold, an alloy dedicated to the 250th anniversary collection, paired with a white dial and black numerals.

Now, the watch is back, but in the most precious of white metals: 950 platinum. Identical in all technical aspects to the 2025 gold edition, it swaps its warm-toned case for the cold colour of platinum. For the record, A.L. Breguet already used platinum in some of his souscription pocket watches, and he is believed to be the first to have adopted platinum in watchmaking. This would make this new edition even more relevant.

40mm in diameter, with a thickness of 10.8mm, the case has a classic 3-part construction with lugs integrated within the case middle (no soldered straight lugs) and finely brushed sides (no fluted casebands), a deliberate choice to make it sleeker and more ergonomic. 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 also features a sapphire crystal and is framed by a “Quai de l’Horloge” guilloché motif.

As for the dial, the platinum Classique Souscription retains the same design, as well as identical display and materials. This means a gold base dial with crisp, white grand feu enamel, but here with blue (instead of black) petit feu enamel for the Breguet logo, Breguet Arabic numerals and minute track. The display still relies on a single-hand indication of the time, the latter being shown by a steel, open-tipped Breguet hand, which has been flame-blued and curved by hand. At 6 o’clock and only visible under certain angles, the secret Breguet signature is produced traditionally using a precision tool equipped with articulated arms: the diamond-point pantograph.

Turn the watch over and framed by a platinum ring is the same movement as the 2025 edition, including its Breguet gold coating. The in-house, hand-wound 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 – identical in spirit to the movements found in the Tradition watches. Delivering a solid 96-hour power reserve, this 3Hz movement features a non-magnetic Nivachron hairspring with a Breguet overcoil, a modern anti-shock device that’s been shaped like an old pare-chute and classic Breguet 5-spoke wheels.

Worn on a navy blue large-scaled alligator leather, with a discreet gradient effect, and closed by a platinum pin buckle, the new Breguet Classique Souscription Platinum (ref. 2026PT/28/9W6) will be priced at CHF 58,000 or EUR 68,000. For more details, please visit breguet.com.