Why One of the Industry's Most Important Brands Still Deserves More Respect - Breguet Classique 5157

when it comes to historical impact very few brands can even rival that of brigade a manufacturer that has roots back to 1775 and being responsible for many developments in watchmaking used even centuries later yet despite its impressive heritage brigade is often unfortunately not discussed as frequently as i feel it should be with this said i wanted to feature two of their timeless brigade classics with the classique watches with ultra thin cases hanging dials and design traits that exemplify their timeless sophistication let's jump into it [Music] now before we jump into this video definitely check out our dress watch blog looking at some of the best dress watches in the industry looking at a variety of different price ranges have dozens of watches picked out in that blog and write up check out the link in the description down below if you want all things dress watches so brigade is as we discussed in the intro one of the watch world's most established manufacturers in the world of watchmaking founded by watchmaker abraham lilly brigay in paris france in 1775 regale lays claim to a number of important firsts along the course of its 246 years including innovations in the area of perpetual calendars the tourbillon self-winding mechanisms chronographs and classic elements of design such as brigade hands owned by abraham louis brigay's descendants until 1870 the brand was taken over by the brown family of england who stayed the course for 100 years right up until the courts crisis of the 1970s and 80s after changing hands several times as well as moving its production from france to switzerland brigade eventually settled into its current position among the swatch group's mighty assembly of brands in 1999. brigade is known for a variety of different pieces such as their sportier marine collection the tino shape heritage line the type series of military inspired chronographs however if you want to get a glimpse of what an entry-level brigade looks like and also one that appeals back to really that era that helped establish their original reputation you have to look at the classique and while the class c collection is vast and comprises a number of different watches we elected to take a look at both a white gold and rose gold variants with the reference 5157 a subtle ultra thin dress watch that exhibits a number of characteristic brigade design elements diving into the case and wearing experience presented by the 5157 we have a 38 millimeter diameter paired with a 44.8 millimeter lug to lug metric that should wear well in a wide variety of wrists out there of its total length the slender lugs take up a significant percentage creating that classic silhouette often attributed to this model family yet the most impressive aspect here has to be the thickness which measures in at 5.3 millimeters with our calipers a truly impressive figure when considering the vertical space required by the typical oscillating weight in an automatic watch given the elegant positioning of this model within brigade's collection the case finishing on both of these two types are coming in solid 18 karat gold with mirror polishing spanning the narrow rounded bezel signature vertically fluted or coined edge central case and long slender faceted wire style lugs that terminate at rounded tips at three a sine four and a half millimeter push-pull crown operates in the traditional fashion with only two positions while helping to secure this watch's 30 meters of water resistance set between 20 millimeter lugs brigade opts for screwed in bars rather than traditional spring bars fortifying the genuine alligator strap into place they taper down to 16 millimeters at a gold buckle to match each of the case materials and overall the approach of this case design is a lesson in refined finishing understatement in class capturing the essence of vintage brigade pocket watches while allowing the more eye-catching aspects of the design to come to the forefront including the striking guillotine dial from a distance you could be forgiven for seeing this class sequel as more of a straightforward silver dialed dress watch but upon closer inspection you get a glimpse of the tightly packed gyoshe pattern a centuries-old technique that brigade certainly helps in popularizing to start these dials are constructed in gold which then is silvered to achieve this natural white silver appearance but the central dial surface demonstrates as mentioned one of brigade's most characteristic techniques the use of engine turning or giache in french to achieve this fine hobnail like texture while often less expensively achieved with a pressing process brigade creates its engine turn dial with the help of a rose engine a special type of lathe that requires a trained steady armed artisan that will apply pressure to a turning surface to make small cuts in the dial based on the orientation nearly endless patterns can be created however to achieve this precise end result it requires taxing levels of focus and any sudden move could really ruin the entire pattern even increase pressure in managing actual time telling the classique leans into finely printed roman numerals set atop a circular brush ring paired with heat blued brigade style signature hands this hand format can be dated all the way back to 1783. nearing the dallas periphery a minute track is denoted with printed circles and tiny hand-applied gold domes at the five-minute positions straddled by engraved rings offering a three-dimensional railway type effect while circumnavigating the dial text is as minimal as you could ask for with only the printed brigade word mark at noon a seldom seen visible serial number at 6 and the finely engraved smaller brigade word marks known as the secret signature located to the left and right of the 12 o'clock index calling back to the 1700s anti-counterfeiting measures taken by abraham libregae himself this is just one of those dials as you start to look a little bit closer you gain more appreciation for the technique at hand and brigade as a manufacturer you begin to just appreciate the dial altogether turning the classic over we take up view of an exhibition case back allowing a clear view of the well finished caliber 502 3 oscillating just underneath now this caliber is derived from the frederique piguet caliber 71 caliber utilized in dozens of ultra-thin watches from major brands with the swatch group now owning the rights to these movements however brigade now has taken over the production of these ultra thin calibers exhibiting many of their own twists along the way at its core the 5023 is defined by its slim construction that allows for the slender height of this watch while still making just enough room for the off-center rotor to oscillate freely more than a simple aesthetic choice the off-center rotor here is employed to avoid the typical challenges in creating ultra-thin automatic movements presented by the vertical space required by both the keyless works as well as the rotor pivot the free sprung balance utilizes the silicium balance spring and escapement lever that should help to avoid the adverse effects of magnetism in addition this caliber is well done in the finishing department keeping with brigade's heritage offering geneva waves and english across the bridges polished countersinks for many of the jewels and screw heads collage on the base plate an exposed barrel exposing that mainspring an interesting difference between these variants is the color and material of each rotor which is done to match the case material itself the oscillating weight itself features another hit of engine turning here exhibiting fine barley corn gear shade that helps to tie this movement aesthetically to the front of the watch i will say though the rose gold variant does just pop more with its contrast with that rotor in the rest of the movement in terms of general operation here just to unpack you're looking at 21 600 vibrations per hour three hertz features hand winding no hacking with this movement there is no second hand so take that how you want it and a power reserve of 45 hours and speaking anecdotally to the accuracy of both of these examples we tested both of them on a time grapher the white gold variant kept time between minus three to four seconds per day and the rose gold variant was minus three to plus one second per day with each being tested at five different positions so now to unpack here looking at both of these brigade classique models now i don't want to say that i find or just have more joy in recording some videos more than others but it's kind of the truth there are just watches because given the amount of times you hear about them you talk about them it's a little bit mundane sometimes to put some videos together compared to others but this was not one of those videos partially because i think brigade as a manufacturer has again a history that is so hard to match if so many things going in its favor but still it's often not mentioned as much as you would think it would be in many cases brigade from a history perspective is the richest in all of watchmaking but when you talk about where maybe modern norms are and where people's interests are brigade doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves despite still some great examples that they're producing as a manufacturer now where these reside in terms of the market really in that entry level high horology dress watch category which usually is between fifteen thousand and twenty five thousand dollars that you're going to find from a lot of the leading say high horology brands you look at the likes of attack vacheron longa just to name a few and then you also have many independent brands also throwing their hat into the ring but when you think of a classic dress timepiece from a fine watchmaking perspective i think there's many characteristics that you might think of whether it's roman numerals or find just arabic numerals that you're thinking of maybe you think of handsets like brigade hands guilloche dials a lot of these elements have to just naturally go back to regain what they were able to develop centuries ago they almost set the standard for what the contemporary and really just the last hundred years of dress watches looked like so they certainly deserve a ton of credit but now looking at them in the modern context i don't think people look in their direction now to say a brand like breguet has a lot of areas that they can continue to grow with just given their history might seem crazy but i think that probably is the truth and why i wanted to start here is because if you have to get to the really rudimentary form of what they did best and when you're looking at kind of that combination of classic modern dress watch that is all about looking to those classic elements and being timeless and fusing it in with some of the pocket watch history and kind of bringing those two worlds together the classique is right there and also being at the entry door for many of their offerings when it comes to this perspective and although these watches are not going to be for the type of individual that is maybe so fascinated with the newest latest and greatest sports pieces but as trends change what usually comes back full circle are the classics and when it comes to classic watchmaking very few names can surpass that of brigay but guys i'd love to see your comments down below what do you think of modern brigade watches do you like them do you not like them where could the brand go from here as so much of what they're producing or remaining or going back to their roots you have this trend right now where everybody's so fascinated with sports watches what can you really do for a brand like this that has this such rich history it's it's really compelling for me i remember somebody asked a question what would be a brand that you'd be interested in like running or at least thinking about like how could you maybe activate this was a brand that actually interests me because of the history behind it the weird thing scenario where you probably have room to grow still even despite this history because i think brigade in many contexts should be just as big as a patek philippe and other brands when you factor all of this big picture idea of what the brand has produced in their archive their affiliations their reputation that they've developed over the years it makes this whole conversation around this brand interesting to me let me see comments down below also if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up subscribe and hit the bell icon that's a great indicator that you guys want to see more of this style of content covering these style of watches in the future be sure to check out that dress watch blog down below in the description and be sure to sign up for our newsletter on teddybaldestar.com to get new written content sent to you every single week but guys thank you again so much for watching be well and i'll see you all very soon

Channel: Teddy Baldassarre

Views: 96,433

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Id: 25yV4dVRQW0

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 21 2022