Tradition

Breguet's Tradition watches put much of the mechanism where a dial would normally be. The time occupies a small circle near the top. Below it, wheels, supports and the regulating balance form the rest of the face.

The collection began in 2005, drawing on the construction of Abraham-Louis Breguet's subscription and touch watches. The subscription watches were sold with a deposit and used a comparatively simple movement built around a central spring barrel. The modern Tradition takes that old arrangement as something to look at from the front.

This is different from cutting openings into a conventional dial. The movement itself determines the composition. Its central barrel stores energy, the gear train transmits it, and the balance controls the rate at which it is released.

The first 7027 was followed by the larger, 40 mm 7057 in 2010. That hand-wound model shows how much running time remains on a small indicator. Later Tradition watches added automatic winding, other time displays and complications.

Those additions can change the visible machinery as much as the information being shown. What holds the family together is not an identical arrangement of parts, but the decision to let the working mechanism occupy most of the face.