Breguet

Dear Purists,

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But your photography skills are even more impressive 👍🏿👌🏿

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Very fond of the 3237 (and the similar 5237), probably the nicest HW chrono this side of Lange. Much nicer than Breguet's newer versions of essentially the same watch, which are unnecessarily big and often have unnecessarily busy dials. Also much nicer than Patek's 5070, which has essentially the same movement, and, to me, is absurdly large and has too-small clock hands compared to the oversized, borderline-silly dial. Why the street price of the 5070 is 5x the price of this watch is completely beyond me; the newer Breguet HW chronos are also a poor value compared to this guy, I think. You hit a home run here, congrats.
As far as the serial # goes, good luck with that. You can google around, apparently the digits run from something like 500-5500 and they click to the next letter. Breguet probably won't tell you exactly when this was produced. This whole production-year secrecy business is absurd, most prominent example probably being Rolex's switch to random serial #s (in 2010, I think it was). Why don't manufacturers want people to know when their watch was made? Too bad this exquisite watch didn't come with papers.

as it is pretty much what I am thinking. The race after big cases has left us with one loser - the movement! All those spacer rings are driving me insane. And the dials with a lot going on at the outer edge just to mask the subdials sitting to close to the center.

It’s truly a shame that one has to pay Breguet €535 to get an extract from the archives - I guess I’ll just have to leave with not knowing how old my watch is. As for the documents, I had to make a quick call when I saw that the watch was in near NOS condition. As much as love a full set buy I would always go for an unpolished original condition. And this one was a thrill to unbox! Probably has been in a safe for the past 20 years.

Adding a couple of photos to illustrate what I mean.

... the long-discontinued Vacheron Les Historiques chrono is also a nice watch and, in YG, is a good deal in the secondary market. Myself, I am resolutely a grey-metal guy, and would kill for the ultra rare platinum version with the guilloche salmon dial but those are very hard to find and have gotten quite expensive (even the silver-dialed platinum version isn't that easy to find and prices are climbing there as well), shoulda grabbed one a few years ago. I also like the "Cornes de Vache", but they are way overpriced, especially in platinum; more than a Lange 1815 chrono, you've gotta be kidding me.

And I agree with the YG 90s chrono (47101) being a good deal.

You have an amazing watch! Owning a Breguet would be my highest horological achievement! I will one day!
Best,
E.

As for the box, I much prefer boxes in size small as these are much easier to store. And the suede sleeve is a great way to store the watch.

One doesn't need to worry about the papers.

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of your new Breguet Classique Chronograph 3237.
Amazing looking watch, love to look at that caliber.
George

It’s all the positive comments that bring inspiration to keep experimenting with light and shadows I have compared this movement to a friend's VC 47101 and  they appear to be identical but for the engravings of course. I am actually suspecting that the movements were finished by the same hands.

... Breguet is Swatch, Vacheron is Richemont, and I'm pretty sure that the label does the finishing, not the movement provider (Lemania, also Swatch, in this case).

so technically the movements could have been ordered from the same manufacturer already finished.

Excellent 3237 once again. Apologies for leaving multiple comments about the same watch.

I used the contact link on Breguet's website to ask when my watch was provided to the dealer who sourced it because that particular store was no longer listed as an AD for Breguet. I received a response within 48 hours that confirmed the dealer was in fact the Swatch distributer for its region and provided the year when the serial number in question was sold to the distributer. It did not give me the exact date of manufacture but it narrowed it down to within the previous 12 months.

It’s defined worth a try.

The size is perfect

...or classier than this. And crazy inexpensive as far as these things go.

I think it’s the size that makes them cheap. But in a few years the size will make ‘em expensive again

...but don't mind wearing 36mm at all. More good stuff for us : )

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I use an Olympus e-m1 mark II and Zuiko lenses. I believe these ones were taken with 25mm 1.2 and 45mm 1.2