Breguet style, the unmistakable signs

It was Abraham-Louis Breguet who – in a period when the design of watches was still lingering in its Rococo period – propelled his art toward the pure, uncluttered aesthetics and taut lines of Neoclassicism. He designed a new type of hands with hollow, eccentric “moon” tips and created elegant numerals for his enamel dials. He introduced the intricate guilloché technique (engine turning), in which silver or gold cases and dials were decorated with distinctive repeating geometric motifs, hand-engraved on a rose engine. The understated, elegant “Breguet style” immediately inspired the entire profession.