Breguet Updates The Tradition Collection With Four New Models
After a spectacular 250th Anniversary, Breuget refreshes one of its most significant collections.
Breguet’s 250th Annversary was celebrated in 2025, and for those who had been wondering if Breguet were still a company which could embody the innovative spirit of its founder, the year was a spectacular vindication – culminating in the release of one of the year’s most talked about watch releases, the Expérimentale 1 high frequency tourbillon, which was the launch platform for Breguet’s magnetic escapement. Another one of the Anniversary pieces was a new Tradition – the Retrograde Seconds ref. 7035, with a blue flinqué enamel dial, which marked a return to the 38mm case size of the original Tradition ref. 7027, from 2005.
For 2026, Breguet is introducing four new references: the 38mm 7037 (in two versions) and 40mm 7097, with retrograde seconds; the 37mm 7038, with a gemset bezel and buckle, and a new dual time model, the 40mm platinum ref. 7067.
All of the new references show the signature Tradition movement architecture, which is derived from Breguet’s “souscription” watches, in which the mainspring barrel sits in the center of the movement, with the going train and balance distributed around the periphery. In 2023, we were lucky enough to go hands on with an original Breguet Souscription from 1805; it was the first time I’d had a chance to handle one in person (and it might be the last) and it brought home the connection between the original Souscription watches and the Tradition models very vividly.
The new Tradition models show the same bilateral symmetry, and although the escapement has been updated to a modern Swiss lever escapement, Breguet today still uses the pare-chute antishock spring as it was designed by Breguet, who began developing it in 1790, and began using it in his self-winding “perpetuélle” watches in around 1792. The original design used a very massive oscillating platinum bob for the winding weight, and this may be the earliest known use of platinum as a technical material in watchmaking. In the late 18th century, techniques for extracting and refining platinum were still in their infancy, and Breguet may have relied on a process originally developed in France, in which platinum was precipitated out of a solution of aqua regia (an extremely powerful combination of nitric and hydrochloric acids) and then alloyed with arsenic to lower the melting point of platinum to the point where it could be cast.
The original platinum winding hammer shape is still used today by Breguet in the Tradition models. Originally, the design’s curves conformed in either of its extreme positions, to the curvature of the case; the modern Tradition models have full rotor winding weights, usually in white gold or platinum, and retain the original shape as it was conceived by Breguet.
The new 7037 models are both retrograde seconds models in the same 38mm cases as the 2005 original; both have retrograde seconds displays, with one model in white gold with a blue movement, and the other in platinum, with a black movement.
Mainspring barrels in both models, which are visible from the dial side, are decorated with hand-engraved guilloché patterns, and dials are in grand feu (fired vitreous) enamel. While Breguet has almost invariably used an elevated sector on the dial for their Tradition retrograde seconds tracks, here the small seconds indications are placed directly on the dial-side movement plate (which Breguet has done before in the ref. 7038 from 2020, and which it does again in this year’s new 7038. The 2020 watch is a ladies’ model, gem set, with a black mother-of-pearl dial, a 37mm case, and some more overtly feminine design flourishes).
The new gem set 7038 is the same dimensions as the 2020 model, and shares its gem set bezel, although the execution this time around is more restrained, eschewing the constrasting dark brown dial and red gold components of its predecessor. Where the 2020 model had an abstract flower petal guilloché design, the 2026 model has a straight radial pattern (another difference is that the 2020 model came with a matching clutch bag, while this one stands alone, as far as I can tell). The new model is also sufficiently spare, at least in comparison to the 2020 model, that it could be plausibly worn as a gentleman’s dress watch – of course, the 2020 model could as well, although the latter’s design cues clearly signal its intention to be seen as a ladies’ watch in the traditional sense.
There are a couple of intriguing points about the new 7067 GMT model, which was first launched in 2012.
The case is 40mm, in platinum, with home time in the subdial at the lower left, and local time up top. The hour hand for the local time indication can be set forwards or backwards in hour increments, via the case pusher at 10:00, which is adjacent to the small day/night indicator. The local time subdial is in green fumé grand feu enamel, and you have the option, for the first time in the ref. 7067, to have home time numerals in either standard Arabic numerals, or in Eastern Arabic numerals, which are used in the Eastern part of the Arab speaking world (the Mashriq, and the Arabian Penninsula). These numerals, which are also called Indo-Arabic numerals, are derived from an older Indian numeral system. there’s also a power reserve indicator on the back of the movement, for which the jet lagged traveler, who may need a reminder to keep the 50 hour power reserve topped off, may be grateful.
Finally, there’s the new Retrograde Seconds ref. 7097. The case is 40mm, in rose gold, with the power reserve in its accustomed location; the caliber 505 SRI has a white gold winding weight. The dial is grand feu white enamel, with Arabic numerals – as with the two new versions of the 7037, this is a bit of a departure from business as usual for the Tradition collection, which has, mostly, used Roman numerals in the past.
All of these watches have their own points of interest; I personally find the new 7097 really hits home. The contrast between the white enamel dial, the grey coloring of the movement plates and cocks, as well as the mainspring barrel cover (which has a very subdued, subtle concentric finish) the gold colored train wheels, and polished steel components like the pare-chute antishock spring, feel very close to Breguet’s own aesthetic as he codified it during his lifetime. We rightly revere fine and elaborate hand finishing in the Swiss-French style nowadays but there are other ways of expressing refinement and commitment to craft, and Abraham Louis Breguet’s combination of extreme precision in construction with a rejection of superfluous ornamentation, has an austere beauty all its own.
The Tradition 7067 GMT, $82,900. The Tradition Retrograde Seconds 7037: in platinum, $65,700; in white gold, $59,700. The Tradition Retrograde Seconds 7097, $57,100.
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