BLAZER
OWES MUCH TO THE GROUND-BREAKING WATCHMAKER A L BREGUET
Breguet’s son, Louis-Antoine, sold the first watch boasting a keyless stem winding and time-setting system, now commonly known as the “crown”, to Count Charles de L’Espine, a French count. Thus arrived the Breguet N° 4952 watch equipped with a “knurled button” that is twirled from left to right between the thumb and forefinger until a stop is reached, and which performs two functions: setting the hands to time and winding the watch. This marked the birth of modern watch winding.
While Breguet was certainly not the first to experiment with self-winding watches, he’s widely credited with being the first to invent and refine a really workable system. To this very day, Breguet tirelessly perpetuates the pioneering spirit of its founder by revolutionising various facets of horology. The House of Breguet was behind the very first instant dual time-zone device. Breguet reinterprets the travel watch with this function that enables a display of two pre-selected time zones by switching instantly from one to another at the simple press of a push-button.
In parallel, the manufacture leverages high frequency to improve the performances of the balance of some of its models. Rendered possible by the use of lighter components made of silicon, the increase in the frequency of the oscillator—reaching as much as 72,000 vibrations per hour on some timepieces—endows watches with a far more precise rate. The use of silicon, a material with anti-magnetic properties, has also enabled the Breguet engineers to envisage incorp rating magnets inside the watch mechanism in order to enhance their performance. Thus, the Classique La Musicale watch was equipped with the first magnetic regultor in watchmaking history. This ingenious mechanism eliminates the characteristic issues of wear, background noise and the need for higher amounts of energy, while also ensuring greater precision.
The introduction of magnetic components, hitherto considered equivalent to horological heresy, have opened up whole new vistas of development, is probably just another milestone for this revolutionary brand.