Horological Meandering

iim7v7im7
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Why does Breguet get such little respect among WIS (Rodney Dangerfield of Watch Ateliers)?

Hi,

This is a somewhat controversial subject, but one worthy of discussion.  Recently, I have been looking into purchasing a new “high-end” dress watch. To no surprise, I naturally looked at A. Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin; all of who make very nice, noble metal dress watches. I went and had a look at all of them, and I must say; they all are beautifully crafted watches.  They each express a different set of design sensibilities, approaches to movements and regional traditions. I also began to see what others had to say about some of the watches that I was interested in and some of the specific models that I was considering.

I found that many WIS were passionate about ALS, AP, PP and VC, but Breguet seemed to be far less popular among WIS aficionados. By looking at the products that they offer, I could not make sense of of this objectively.  All that I really could come upon was that unlike AP and PP who have long continuous histories as innovative Ateliers. Yes, Breguet had a patchy, non-continuous history full of ownership transfers and fluctuations in quality.  Vacheron Constantin also had a continuous history with some laps in its horlogical presence for some decades and was owned by a luxury giant, Richemont.  A. Lange & Sohne literally recreated an old name in the 1990s with an injection of funds and talent by Vendome (now Richemont) and had produced stellar quality watches for the last 20 years. 

Breguet, like ALS and VC was purchased by a giant (Swatch Group) 13 years ago.  It had produced some distinct, high quality watches; but seems different in two ways:

1) The leadership team (Mr. Hayek) was very boastful of the companies’ recent achievements and talked up the brand’s horological statusin avery forward way;

2) They were less transparent than other companies about the origin of their movements which came from their luxury  ebauche manufacturing companies (Frederic Piguet and Lemania) who also made movements for other SG brands (Blancpain, Jacquet Droz and Omega).

So, it is not about discontinuous history alone.  It is also not about a lack of innovation, because they have many.  It is something else I sense. So my question to you is why don’t Breguet watches get the respect that they deserve among WIS?

Curious,

Bob