Breguet’s new CEO Gregory Kissling certainly knows his facts. Within 30 seconds of sitting down he has launched into an animated discussion about the first of the watches created to commemorate the Maison’s 250th anniversary – the Tradition Seconde Rétrograde 7035.
He drills down on the details of the new Marine Hora Mundi, which is what Kissling is in London to present, as part of a year-long celebratory tour that starts and ends in Paris, taking in Shanghai, New York, Tokyo, Geneva, Seoul and Dubai along the way.
“We wanted to launch a GMT in London because of the Greenwich Meridian, but also because of Breguet’s relationship to the production of marine chronometers here,” says Kissling.
Abraham-Louis Breguet visited London multiple times in the 1780s and developed a close friendship with John Arnold, one of the era’s foremost chronometer makers. They were such good friends that Arnold’s son, John Roger, spent two years as an apprentice with Breguet in Paris, while Breguet’s own son, Antoine-Louis, trained with Arnold in London.
The Marine Hora Mundi 5555 obviously isn’t a marine chronometer but rather an incredibly complex GMT that, given its complexity is surprisingly easy to use. Unlike usual GMT watches, there is no time-zone hand or sub-dial.
Instead, the central hands not only indicate the local time, but you can also use the pusher inside the crown to instantly jump those hands to a different time zone – set using the crown at eight o’clock.
Not only that but the day/night and date indicators also jump, and it can go backwards as well as forwards. Something that, given the nature of gearing, is fiendishly difficult to mechanically engineer.
It is something of which Kissling is incredibly proud. As a timepiece it does signify his desire to honour the past while finding new ways to move Breguet forward.
“We cannot stay in the past,” he attests. “If you keep copying you become dusty. Finding modernity in tradition, that is what these anniversary watches are all about. That and keeping the momentum going.”
Kissling knows a lot about momentum. His previous role was as Omega’s vice president of product, where he was instrumental in the creation of the MoonSwatch – a timepiece with so much momentum it had people camping out for days to get one and, on launch day, even caused fights in Swatch stores.
In many ways, that makes him a unorthodox hire for Breguet. However, when you consider Breguet’s recent history and market position, a man with an idea of how to make a splash might be a canny move.
It’s no secret that, since the Chaumet/Investcorp years, Breguet has had trouble finding its feet. The Chaumet brothers bought Breguet in 1970, relaunching it in 1983, but bankruptcy, fraud charges and overleveraged diamond investments forced a sale to Bahrain-based private equity firm, Investcorp in 1987.
Despite Investcorp also acquiring noted movement maker Nouvelle Lemania and Valdar, a supplier of micro mechanics, Breguet struggled. Quality dropped at a time when people were becoming more knowledgeable about watches.
This led to it falling behind the likes of other haute brands such as Patek Philippe. It also didn’t have any ‘value’ propositions to compete with Rolex et al.
Breguet Experimental 1
The Swatch years began in 1999, with Nicholas Hayek Sr setting about making Breguet the pearl in the group’s crown, ensuring that the watches from the Chaumet and Investcorp years vanished from the market, and buying historic pieces from its history for a Breguet museum, essentially retconning its past.
It still didn’t work. This might be down to selling points. While Abraham-Louis Breguet presided over invention after invention, today everyone from Audemars Piguet to TAG Heuer can make a tourbillon. Its point of difference lies in its mastery of hand crafts and guilloché, but that’s hard to explain to a younger audience who just wants to know if Jay-Z has one. This is something of which Kissling is well aware.
“We are a brand for connoisseurs, for watch lovers; we are not a ‘first watch’ brand,” he agrees. “We need to attract a younger audience. The new generation is attracted to authenticity. Breguet is hand crafted by humans, each watch is unique and not just because of the number on it, but because everything is finished by hand. We need to communicate that.”
Breguet Classique Minute Repeater 7365
There are rumblings in the industry that Breguet is ripe for a renaissance due to a perfect storm of low secondary market prices, a rising interest among collectors in going after lesser-known brands, and the resurging popularity of the dress watch.
“Collector interest has been bubbling for years, but it’s never really broken through. Breguet feels poised for a resurgence,” says Christy Davis, co-founder of Subdial, the data-based pre-owned platform and market monitor.
“It’s a collectible fever dream waiting to happen, but then it’s felt like that for a while without any breakthrough. If they can capitalise on the authentic sense of excitement that we’re seeing in the preowned market and the increased appreciation of the brand within the collector community on the secondary market, this can only be a good thing, and could help customers to become more comfortable buying at RRP.”
Given what Kissling did at Omega it feels like he is the man to ignite this moment. “We will innovate but not just for the sake of it,” he says when asked about future plans. “Everything we do will be for the benefit of the customer.” And will there be a Breguet equivalent of the MoonSwatch on the cards? “No,” says Kissling immediately then pauses. “Well, it’s not planned at the moment but never say never.”
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