The world's least practical chronograph?

[CFR]

Illogical, unnecessary complicated, expensive...but I would love to have one!

[mlcor]

Illogical, unnecessary complicated, expensive...but I would love to have one!

Exactly...

[Seriously]

[Donf]

Yeah, being operated by the invisible man

Wait!, Santa Claus was in it ?!?!?

Damn!!! THAT"S a celebrity endorsement!

[tempocalypse]

True confession--although I love Breguet, I'm not a big fan of their Tradition series, which always seemed to be an uneasy compromise between skeleton and non-skeleton, and I felt the industrial style finishing was not in keeping with Breguet..

I think this watch is super cool in it's concept! apart from the Tradition GMT (which is not very traditional complication at least not in the time of AL Breguet), I find the Tradition line to be very interesting in the way they pay tribute to the mechanics of Breguet's time. The start from scratch approach to the chronograph complication (which also pays tribute to independent seconds on some old Breguets), the weird gongs on the minute repeater (reminiscent of various gong shapes Breguet experimented with) the fusee and chain tourbillon, and of course the original 7027 with a movement layout almost identical to the souscription watches are all very cool conceptually I think.

Personally I love the look of old frosted plate pocket watch moments and I prefer this open dial look to a full skeleton. But you are quite right about the industrial aesthetics. For me the frosted plates only work when gilded in yellow gold. I am really disappointed that going forward most of the tradition line seems to be using rose gold, white gold and platinum(?) cases with dark or neutral colours on the plates.

I get that these aesthetics lend them a high tech look which does well int today's market but you've got the word Tradition in the collections name! In keeping with the tradition concept, each model should at least be offered in a yellow gold option with yellow gold frosted movements. I found the yellow gold 7027 and Tourbillon absolutely stunning in person. The hand frosted plates have a beautiful lustre to them that is quite different from the result of sandblasting. Frosting is compressive which maintains the smooth surface inside the "craters" while sand blasting is abrasive and cuts away material dulling it.

Incidentally I noticed that the yellow gold version of the 7027 is missing from their website now, leaving only the fusee and chain tourbillon in YG. The 7027 has haunted me since it was first released (though I knew next to nothing about watches back then) so I guess I'll have to look at the secondary market if I ever get around to adding one to my collection.

Anyway I can't help but think how cool this chrono would look if it were finished like the 7027 below.



Souscription watch from Breguet's time:

[mlcor]

Agreed--the gold finish definitely works. The other type is too similar to the Tissot skeleton, which I like and owned for a while, but of course is a fraction of the cost, and as such the industrial motif works well. Sold that one because it just wore too big for me.

[Seriously]

Personally I love the look of old frosted plate pocket watch moments and I prefer this open dial look to a full skeleton.

+1