Breguet
The Breguet Guilloché
Breguet
The Breguet Guilloché
Like a tiger’s stripes or a leopard’s spots, guilloché is the traditional pattern that is unmistakably linked to Breguet. Not necessarily because Breguet started it (the origins of traditional guillochage is a little muddled), but because Abraham-Louis Breguet made this traditional engraving into a functional design and elevated it to an art form that, today, only few trained in the art can really do and do well.
Dedicated to the Craft
In the heart of the watchmaking Mecca in the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland, surrounded by sprawling pine woods and green valleys, sits the Manufacture de l’Orient, where Breguet has heavily invested in a workshop solely dedicated to guilloché. Twenty artisans continuously hone their skills in precision engraving in a room full of rose engine machines, perfecting smooth and meticulous movements to create symmetrical patterns on delicate dials. If you think that the tourbillon, invented by Breguet in 1801, is one of the strands making up the double helix that is Breguet’s DNA, then traditional guilloché is the other.
Guilloché Today
To really see the full breadth that guilloché can provide on one dial, we turn to the Breguet Classique Chronométrie 7727. The 41mm silvered gold dial boasts five different guilloché patterns, all hand-engraved on a rose engine: vagues de Genève (Geneva waves) on the central section, clous de Paris for the small seconds, soleil (sunburst) for the tenths of seconds counter, chevrons for the power reserve, a liseret pattern for the hours chapter and a grain d’orge (barleycorn) pattern for the outer border. The watch is a stunning show of Breguet’s mastery of the art of guilloche – beautifully executed, the watch remains legible, no matter the angle, and subtly blends from polished surface to guilloché pattern.
The first piece is the Classique Tourbillon SQ 5395. Breguet’s innovation and mastery of mechanics and aesthetics is amply demonstrated here in this slim, skeletonised tourbillon offering unobstructed views of splendid hand decoration with the convenience of a self-winding movement. The stunning skeletonised movement is complemented by clous de Paris hobnailing on what remains of the plate surface – a pattern created using a diamond-tipped guilloché tool that leaves no room for error.