The 2020 Tradition offers an open view of the movement with all its architectural shapes and shows not only the hours and minutes but retrograde date.
As a watchmaker, Breguet has always looked to its past for inspiration and the same is observed with its latest Tradition Quantième Retrograde 7597.
This time, it borrows elements from one of its most significant pieces in history: the subscription watch.
Purposefully simple and stripped back, the watch was created by Abraham-Luis Breguet for reliability. To court new clienteles, he offered a subscription service for the watch, hence its name.
The calibre that beat within in would go on to create the first tact watches, sometimes adding a little dial to them. Thus was born the first Tradition collection in 2005.
This year, the new Tradition 7597 also features a retrograde date display, a complication that Breguet was one of the first to develop, and which has brought about some of its most famous creations.
The Retrograde Date Display
A perfectionist, concerned with both technology as well as aesthetics, Abraham-Louis Breguet designed a movement the modernity of which is still astonishing to this day. Crossing the centuries, his design is at the very root of the Tradition range: positioned in the center, the large barrel is topped by a symmetrically arranged gear train. As such, the center wheel at 8 o’clock triggers the oscillating mechanism of the same size at 4 o’clock. This is equipped with the famous pare-chute invented by the master watchmaker, the ancestor of all today’s anti-shock mechanisms, and signature element of the Tradition collection.
Another specific feature is the hour and minute dial that, eccentrically positioned at 12 o’clock and made of gold, is inspired by that of certain Breguet tact watches. As such, the new Tradition 7597 features an hours chapter with Roman numerals, bordered by a delicate engine-turned Clous de Paris pattern, which serves as a backdrop for blued Breguet hands.
In the interests of balance, a retrograde date section is positioned between the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock and a skillfully curved hand indicates the date moving in the vertical plane, fitting in with the ultra-architectural movement. A patented mechanism provides for a fine adjustment of the date hand. The latter is multi-tiered, allowing it to fly over the movement components. At 10 o’clock, a screw-in corrector allows users to set the date safely.
The Breguet Tradition Quantième Rétrograde 7597
The 2020 Tradition offers an open view of the movement with all its architectural shapes and shows not only the hours and minutes but retrograde date. The new Tradition 7597 features an hours chapter with Roman numerals, bordered by a delicate engine-turned Clous de Paris pattern, which serves as a backdrop for blued Breguet hands.
In the interests of balance, a retrograde date section is positioned between the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock and a skillfully curved hand indicates the date moving in the vertical plane, fitting in with the ultra-architectural movement. A patented mechanism provides for a fine adjustment of the date hand.
Everything sits in a 18-carat white gold case with fine fluted caseband with a sapphire-crystal caseback. Individually numbered and signed, it is fastened by an alligator strap with white gold buckle and is also available in 18-carat rose gold.
To learn more, log on to the official website here.
(Source: Breguet)
