Is Breguet back?
And a few gift recommendations for the holiday season.
As we reach the last month of 2025, I started thinking about the defining trends of the past few years. Here’s what I came up with:
2023: Year of Shapes
2024: Year of Stone Dials
2025: Year of Craft
This is the year when finishing, internal angles, and métiers d’art hit critical mass. Unpolished added to the conversation with “How Hand-Finishing Became the New Complication”, which is one of the most-read newsletters of the year. The topic also came up in podcasts with Brandon Moore, William Massena, and Wei Koh.
What do you think? Speaking of year in review: I’m recording a podcast with Jack Forster later this week. We’ll look back on the year that was in watches. Let me know in the comments (or reply to this email) if you have questions for Jack and me.
In today’s newsletter: Is Breguet actually ‘back’? But first—
A gift guide by any other name
Happy December, happy holidays. Here’s a compilation of stuff I’ve recommended throughout the year:
2026 Unpolished subscriptions. As I mentioned last week, Founding Memberships for 2026 are now open. For $199, you’ll get (1) any strap from the Unpolished Store, (2) the Rewind 2025 Magazine (a physical magazine!), (3) $50 off any service from Watchcheck, (4) all newsletters, podcasts, comments, and Q&As. Manage or upgrade here:
Shoot me an email if you’re having trouble upgrading and I’ll help sort it out. If you’re the generous type, you can also give Unpolished as a gift:
Straps
Also check out the new Canvas or Matte Calfskin straps in the Unpolished Store for you or a friend. Free U.S. shipping for the rest of 2025 + Matte Calfskin straps launch price of $100 before increasing to $110 in 2026:
These are two of my favorite straps from Nick Gabarro, which is why they’re the first two launches from the Unpolished Store. The Matte Calfskin has a finish that’s somewhere between dressy and distressed—it works on modern dress watches or vintage tool watches. The Canvas Strap is 100% cotton and super comfy. Unlike most canvas straps, it’s not lined, which means it’s thin and flexible (2mm) and gets even better with time.
Books
I love books—a great way to engage in the hobby without spending a ton of money. Here are a few I’ve recommended this year:
Hands of Time, Rebecca Struthers, or her kids’ book, About Time
Rolex Submariner or Rolex Datejust, Nick Foulkes
The Dial, Dr. Helmut Crott
The Watch, Stories & Savoir Faire, Audemars Piguet
Ultimate Collector Watches, Taschen. I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet, but this new tome looks promising.
Other classics include: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Dana Thomas; A Grand Complication, Stacy Perman; and The Cartiers, Francesca Brickell Cartier
Many of these can be found on sale on Amazon, especially this time of year.
Watches
This whole newsletter is basically recommending watches to buy (or not). Here are 5 new watches I’d recommend to almost anyone, from $200 to $25k, along with vintage alternatives. It’s as good a place as any to start.
The perfect $500 watch: I’m writing this while wearing my Merci LMM-01 for Hodinkee. For me, still one of the best <$500 watches around. The Hodinkee LE is long gone, but I like some of the new variations Merci Paris introduced earlier this year.
Other Stuff
Nikon Zf camera. I upgraded to this full-frame mirrorless Nikon about a year ago from the smaller Z50. The Zf is similar to the Nikon Z6 II but has a retro-inspired body, so I bought the one that looks cool. It’s also a bit more compact, and I have a strict no-checked-bags rule so need a camera that fits in a carry-on. The Zf also comes with a solid 24-70mm kit lens. Thinking about adding a little point-and-shoot like the Ricoh GR III/IV to the mix.
Hodinkee Travel Case. I like these old H travel cases, but sadly you’ll have to trawl eBay to find them. Also try Molequin Ultraslim Cases. The two-watch cases are great for traveling light, and you probably don’t need to travel with more than three watches (including the one on your wrist)—sports, dress, beater. Oak & Oscar also makes a nice watch wallet.
Travel Spring Bar tool. Very useful. I’ve included a Watches of Espionage link, but these can also be found elsewhere. Or, if you’re nice to a friendly dealer, they might give you one.
Bergeon screwdriver set. Bergeon tools are a buy-once-cry-once proposition. You’ll be tempted to buy the $10 knock-offs on Amazon, but I’m here to tell you: don’t do it. They’ll break in two weeks.
Here’s more of my favorite stuff, including the tools I use to make this newsletter:
Is Breguet actually back?
Breguet has had an interesting 250th anniversary—some genuine technical steps forward paired with the most thoughtful design updates they’ve made in a decade.
Funny enough, I’d already prepared this section before Breguet released its new magnetic escapement on Monday. Its core insight is clever: What if we flip the standard Swiss lever escapement on its head by using magnetic fields to power it instead of contact? I wrote an intro explainer for GQ, but it’s worth a full technical deep dive later.
In terms of the full package, I’m still more taken by last month’s releases: the Breguet Classique refs. 7225 and 7235. I got to see both in person last week when the brand’s new North American president, Vincent Brasesco, visited local retailer CD Peacock.
The 7225 is the headliner, but the 7235 gives a much-needed refresh to one of my favorite neo-vintage Breguet references.
First, the 7225. It’s 41mm of Breguet gold (a slightly warmer yellow gold), with a “Mickey Mouse” layout based on old tourbillon pocket watches.1 From the photos, you can see it’s simply too big for my wrist, but it’s based on a pocket watch, so the large format makes sense. Instead of a tourbillon, it has an “observatory seconds” at 10 o’clock, which zero resets with the press of the button at 9 o’clock. Not a terribly complex complication, but it lets you interact with the high-beat movement.
Aesthetically, the new case on both the 7225 and 7235 is the most exciting part of both releases. The shape is similar to that one-hand Souscription, but adds guilloche to the case band, a reference to the recognizable coin-edge cases of neo-vintage Breguet. On those older Breguets, you’ll see the same “Quai de l’Horloge” pattern on the caseback. It also reminds me of what Josh Shapiro does with some of his cases.
It probably takes less craft than Daniel Roth-era cases with welded lugs, but the updates are simply more wearable and modern. Those old cases are a bit fussy—throw in the tic-tac lugs, and it’s a very ornamental look. But this feels modern.
Movement. The 7225’s defining feature is a high-frequency movement beating at 10 hertz, first seen in the 7727 10+ years ago. For reference, the Rolex Land-Dweller caliber is a standard high-frequency movement that beats at 5 hertz.
To achieve this high beat rate, the balance staff literally floats, held in place by two high-powered magnets on either side. It also means the regulating mechanism controls for every position, kinda like a tourbillon, tying the 7225 to its historical design.
Breguet’s movement engraving treatment on the Type XX earlier this year inspired me to write about how watches are too literal. Again here, the movement engraving is a bit overwrought. In his 2012 review of the 7727 for the Mothership (the first time we saw the magnetic pivot), Clymer pointed to some subpar engraving quality. But the engraving is well excuted in the 7225/7235, even if I still feel it’s unnecessary. In the same category, I prefer the simple, classic finishing of the Daniel Roth, covered last week.
Either way, it’s the technical underpinnings of the high-frequency caliber 74SC that shine through.
That melancholy moonphase
The Breguet ref. 7235 was released alongside the high-frequency 7225. It’s a refresh of the ref. 3130, one of the first watches of the Daniel Roth era, introduced in 1983, which, in turn, was inspired by the asymmetrical layout of Breguet’s No. 5 pocket watch.
The 7235 has a similar dial design and uses the same base movement as its predecessor, but successfully updates the Breguet style. It’s recognizable as a Breguet, but one for 2025.
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