The prevalence of blue dials among watches these days seems to suggest that our tastes as watch buyers has shifted somewhat away from the usual black or white. It’s a welcome move. In my experience blue has tremendous versatility – it can appear black in low lighting, which is good for formal situations; or in brighter environments, it can be vibrant and eye-catching.
In this regard, it’s nice to see Breguet have two members of their Classique collection undergo the blue treatment – the Classique reference 7137 and the Classique reference 7337. And since blue is the brand’s colour, there is no other shade that is suitable, it can only be “Breguet blue” and nothing else.
Both these watches are the embodiment of the typical gentlemen’s watch, being similar in most ways, including the 39mm case width, the round case and the silicon hairspring and escapement but differing in the dial layout and the complications of the dial.
The Classique 7137 has the hour and minute hands centrally mounted, and a date, power-reserve indicator and phases and age of the moon as complications. The Classique 7377 has the hour and minute hands in its own large sub-dial that is centralised but biased towards the lower portion of the dial. It also carries the date and the day in small apertures and the phases and age of the moon at 12 o’clock. Another nice difference, the Classique 7137 has no small seconds, while the 7377 has it in a small sub-dial within the main time subdial. It’s nice to see the formula of the classic dress watch at play here with either small seconds that are removed or made very small.
It’s also interesting to note that both these dial designs are based on old pocket watch designs from Breguet. The Classique 7137 for example, was inspired by the Perpetuelle No.5 pocket watch, while the Classique 7377 was inspired by the Quarter-repeating watch, No.3833 that was sold in 1823 and currently being exhibited at the Breguet Museum in Paris.
Both references have existed with white dials before in the Classique collection, both coming in a number of case metal variations.
Now with the addition of Breguet blue as an option, the various finishings that are applied to the dials of both watches are able to show their aesthetic qualities differently. With the Classique 7137, the blue parts of the dial include a panier maillé basket weave pattern for the power reserve display, a damier checkerboard pattern for the date display and a clous de Paris hobnailing pattern for the main part of the dial. With the dial of the Classique 7337, the blue is in the circular grain d’orge barley grain for the edges of the hours chapter, damier checkerboard for the small seconds and Clous de Paris hobnailing in the center.
We’ll bring you live pictures of both watches when we see them later in the year, in the meantime, look out for more information at Breguet’s website.
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