magic_jon
34
Breguet in Modern Russia
Hello everyone,
I work in Russia (posted there by my oil company for the last 3 years). I was always fascinated by the country (with all its good and bad aspects), learnt its history and eventually its language.
Needless to say that Breguet had strong historical links with Russia, since the early days. Russia was a prime market for Swiss manufactures, incl. Breguet, and of course Tsar Alexandre Ist and Pushkin were famous among Breguet's many clients.
And as some discussed in some posts, indeed Putin has a 5817 Marine and Medvedev has a Classique model. The Breguet house themselves offered a special limited (200-watch) edition of the 'Reveil du Tsar' to prominent Russian figures - Nikita Mikhalkov (award-winning producer) received the number 1. Lushkov, the Russian mayor got one too - my guess is he's probably a good customer himself! The Breguet boutique is right on the Red Square - make sure you have a look, when/if you next come to Russia. 
The watches have a Pushkin image on the back, as it was to celebrate his 200th birthday anniversary.
So far, I'm probably not saying anything new to us many watch lovers.
The interesting thing is that in these modern, post-Soviet days, Breguet is still very much admired by Russians. It's definitely very famous here, especially among the Russian intellectuals. In fact, much more famous than I expected when I first came here. During my conversations here, I found that Russians consistently rank Breguet as the very top brand of watch, for gents and ladies.
As an example, I fell on this magazine article in the Russian edition of "L'Officiel", a high-end monthly French fashion magazine for ladies (hey - it's my wife's, who piles up magazines from everywhere!! I know, it's sad, but this time I couldn't help noticing the 15-page dossier on watchmakers!
Anyway, Breguet was the first brand they dedicated pages to, out of ten or so watchmakers. So for the fun, I thought I would share with you a few pics from the Breguet article pages - all in Russian and just for your curiosity. all nice pics, apart from the big nose of Hayek on one of the pages (lol)!
