Inside Breguet's new watch collection celebrating 225 years of the tourbillon

If you love luxury watches, you know the name Breguet. This year, the famous watchmaker is celebrating a huge milestone: the 225th anniversary of the tourbillon patent, officially filed by founder Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801.

To understand why this is such a huge deal in the watch world, you have to look at how mechanical watches work. Gravity naturally pulls on the tiny, moving parts inside a watch, which can cause it to lose accuracy over time—especially back in the 1800s when people kept pocket watches upright in their vests.

To solve this, Breguet invented the tourbillon, a clever mechanism that constantly rotates the watch's most sensitive parts inside a tiny, moving cage. This rotation cancels out the negative effects of gravity, making the watch incredibly precise. Today, making a tourbillon requires extreme engineering and artistic skill, which is why they are considered the ultimate symbol of luxury and high-end watchmaking.

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To honour this history-changing invention, Breguet has just released four stunning new timepieces. Here is everything you need to know about this special collection.

Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255

Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255PT. Image: Breguet

This is the star of the new release. It is a modern version of Breguet's very first wristwatch to feature a "flying" tourbillon. It features a "mystery" design where the gears that drive the tourbillon are completely hidden from view, making the mechanical parts look like they are floating in mid-air. Breguet hasn't used this design in nearly 20 years.

The watch has a 38mm platinum case and a striking black aventurine enamel dial that can look like a deep green depending on how the light hits it. It has a 50-hour power reserve and is highly exclusive, with only 50 pieces made worldwide. It retails for $294,400.

Classique Tourbillon 7357

Classique Tourbillon 7357PT. Image: Breguet

This model is a tribute to the famous Reference 3350 from 1989, which was Breguet’s first modern tourbillon wristwatch. However, this new version gets an entirely new internal mechanism called the Caliber 187B movement. It features an upgraded 60-hour power reserve and uses high-tech silicon parts to protect the watch from magnetic fields.

The back of the watch is beautifully engraved with a pattern inspired by the Dent de Vaulion mountain in Switzerland. It features a smaller, vintage-style 35mm case and a gold dial decorated with traditional hand-engraved patterns. Unlike the other limited editions, this joins the permanent collection and gives collectors two physical versions to choose from: a classic, warm 18-karat Breguet gold variant for $184,800, and a bright, modern platinum version for $203,300.

Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887

Marine Équation Marchante 5887. Image: Breguet

The largest watch in the lineup at 43.9mm, this model honours Breguet’s historic role as the official watchmaker to the French Royal Navy. The dial shows a hand-painted night sky in Grand Feu enamel, and Breguet allows buyers to customise the dial to show the exact alignment of the stars from any specific date, time, and location in history.

It includes a "perpetual calendar" and an "equation of time" complication, which tracks the tiny differences between standard clock time and actual solar time. It features an 80-hour power reserve and retails for $385,900.

Tradition Tourbillon

Tradition 7047PT. Image: Breguet

For collectors who love futuristic and highly geometric designs, the Tradition Tourbillon has been given a vibrant blue makeover. It features beautiful glacier-blue and "Bleu de France" details across the open dial, showing off the internal gears and a complex "fusee-and-chain" system, which is a mechanism originally sketched out by Leonardo da Vinci. Housed in a 41mm case with a 55-hour power reserve, this model is limited to just 25 pieces and retails for $325,200.