Luxury brands are in a delicate balancing act, toeing the line between maintaining their heritage while keeping up with the need to innovate and surprise.
'It makes perfect sense that our collections remain steeped in tradition. We are not stuck in history; rather, we bring tradition and aesthetics to life,' says Martin Ganz, Breguet's vice-president for Greater China.
'It is similar to a piece of music. There are a multiple number of ways to interpret Haydn, for example. You can play the original instruments for which it was intended or take the spirit of it and adjust it to modern times. That is, in many ways, what we are doing in watchmaking.'
Though Breguet, with a history of 235 years, has kept the aesthetics traditional, featuring its renowned hands and dials, and distinctive, simple-to-read numerals that combine function with elegance, significant progress has also been made in technical innovation.
Over the past decade, the company has applied for more than 58 patents, Ganz says, adding that some are more minor than others, but all are significant.
Some include the Breguet overcoil silicon balance spring, patent for the moon phase mechanism in the Reine De Naples watch (HK$257,600 to HK$4,920,000) and two in Le Reveil Du Tsar, the alarm watch (HK$299,800 to $308,400), which includes a column wheel mechanism to lock or activate the alarm, and a device to co-ordinate the alarm with local time.