Breguet Heritage Tonneau Dress Watch

Breguet makes the best dials in the biz. Yeah, we said it.

Their signature engine-turned dials, individually numbered and hand-finished, are simply beautiful works of art. You’d be hard-pressed to find such fine attention to detail in a watch costing many times what, say, a time-only or time-and-date model from the brand’s Heritage line trades for.

This incredible piece, a Reference 3660 combines a number of different guilloché finishes. A central dial wave guilloché, a separate subsidiary-seconds guilloché, and a third finish around the periphery of the dial interweb with one another to create a masterpiece of fine detail. To this day, Breguet continues to execture their engine-turned dials by hand on a rose lathe.

These details taken alone would make for a beautiful piece. But the 3660 steps a bit further down the line with a tonneau case. Wearing a bit larger, but close to the wrist, the 3660 has a bit more personality and charm than a more conventional round watch.

In many ways, this piece reminds us of what we’d envision for a dressy and more buttoned up version of a Franck Muller. That's no shade to FM, but Breuget has been consistently creating mechanical pieces of art for 214 years and counting!

This wonderful piece trades for a fraction of what a comparable Patek Philippe would, and provides both the design, and build quality that we have come to expect from Breguet and other high horology makers. 

In short, it’s freaking awesome.

Few companies are so steeped in history that their name has become a byword for a particular type of product or style. Breguet is one such company: Their famously elegant numerical typeface and matching handset is now de rigueur amongst the most sophisticated dress watches, from Patek Philippe to Longines to, of course, Breguet itself.

However, these numerals and hands are but a single innovation in a long list of horological firsts devised by master watchmaker and inventor Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), a Neuchatel-born savant whose Parisian career saw the advent of myriad watchmaking creations that we take for granted today. Indeed, it was Breguet who devised the first self-winding watches, as well as the first gongs for repeating watches and the tourbillon. Not many inventors can claim the king and queen of France as patrons, but indeed King Louis XVI and his bride Marie Antoinette were amongst his admirers.

20th-century Breguet is no less storied: The company’s Type 20 pilot’s chronograph issued to the French Aéronautique Militaire in the 1950s provided a benchmark for military watch design. Its stark black dial and utilitarian look belied the sophisticated retour en vol (“flyback”) mechanism within the movement, which allowed a pilot to stop, reset and start the chronograph by depressing the bottom pusher just once.

More recently, under the current management of Mark A. Hayek, modern Breguet has continued to register new patents and amass a dedicated following. The brand’s “Classique” dress watches from the 1990s and 2000s, for example, feature some of the most striking dials in modern watchmaking, making use of guilloché patterns, blue steeled hands and Roman numerals. While the company’s contemporary offerings continue to increase in sophistication and the number of complications available, it’s surely these simple, gorgeous time-only models that best encapsulate the elegant timepieces of A.L. Breguet himself.

Our Pledge

Analog:Shift stands behind the authenticity of our products in perpetuity.

Condition

Since our pieces are vintage or pre-owned, please expect wear & patina from usage and age. Please read each item description and examine all product images.

Warranty

We back each Analog:Shift vintage timepiece with a one-year mechanical warranty from the date of purchase.

International Buyers

Please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.

All of our watches include complementary insured shipping within the 50 states.

Most of our products are on hand and will ship directly from our headquarters in New York City. In some cases, watches will be shipped directly from one of our authorized partners.

We generally ship our products via FedEx, fully insured, within 5 business days of purchase. An adult signature is required for receipt of all packages for insurance purposes. Expedited shipping is available at an additional cost. We are also happy to hand deliver your purchase in Manhattan or you may pick it up at our showroom.

Returns must be sent overnight or by priority international delivery, fully insured and paid for by the customer. A restocking fee may apply. Watches must be returned in the same condition as initially shipped.

We welcome international buyers, please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.