Breguet Continues Partnership With London Concours for 2023
Prestigious watchmakers Breguet are proud to once again return to the historic Honorable Artillery Company as the Presenting Partner for the London Concours 2023. The long-standing partnership is deeply rooted in the shared passion for excellence, elegance, precision and craftsmanship between Breguet and the London Concours.
The House of Breguet, founded in 1775, combines technical prowess with timeless elegance, which attracted a number of distinguished patrons, who honoured Abraham-Louis Breguet as one of the greatest watchmakers of all time. A.-L. Breguet’s dedication to mechanical excellence led him to develop an abundance of innovations that contributed to the improvement of watchmaking, including the creation of the self-winding watch. Mastering the art of timeless style, Breguet created his own aesthetic codes that have been distinguishing the brand’s timepieces ever since. The Breguet famous hand engraved, engine-turned dials are immediately recognizable and celebrated for the fineness of their patterns, reflecting the regularity of the movements within. Generation after generation and thanks to its reputation, Breguet has also collaborated with various industries including the automotive industry.
Breguet Special Dashboard clocks
Breguet’s reputation of high technical precision caught the attention of M. Ettore Bugatti, who bought a Breguet Tachymeter watch in 1932; a personal model from a series of nine made by Breguet for the Bugatti Royal cars, and intended to be placed at the centre of the steering wheel. An exceptional example of this dashboard clock resides in the Breguet Museum, clock no.2023 designed exclusively for Bugatti, featuring a chrome-plated metal case and houses a complication carefully chosen for the automotive industry, a tachymeter scale. Bearing the words “Spécial pour Bugatti”, the Breguet no.2023 dashboard chronograph was produced during the interwar years, at the request of Ettore Bugatti who became a faithful friend of the House and demonstrates the highly diverse range of activities carried out by the watch manufacture.
In the early 1990s, Breguet once again became the watchmaker of choice in the automobile industry, this time for Lamborghini. Contacted by the luxury manufacturer of sports cars, Breguet was required to create a dashboard clock for the new “Diablo” model. The chronograph clock, offered as an upgrade option for the sum of 13,500 CHF, in stainless steel with a gilded green lacquer, featuring a silvered dial with black Roman numerals, Breguet blue steel hands and the Lamborghini logo. The piece is extremely rare, given only around 60 clocks were made, one of which now resides in the Breguet Museum, having acquired the clock through a private sale in 2022.
Those who appreciate the beauty of a mechanical object, will undoubtedly be able to see the parallels between Breguet and the automotive world, both sharing an appreciation for impeccable aesthetics and mechanical excellence. It is this rich engineering, inventive and innovative history within the automobile industry that brings Breguet and the London Concours together.
Visitors to London Concours 2023 will have the opportunity to see some of the latest Breguet innovations, learn more about the uninterrupted and remarkable history of the House of Breguet and see the artistry of its watchmaker’s first-hand.