The Most Expensive Breguet Swiss Luxury Watches

Breguet Winter Concert On 5th Featuring The New York Philharmonic

Currently part of The Swatch Group, Breguet SA is an iconic Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches and an overall historic institution. Headquartered in Vallée de Joux, Switzerland since 1974, Breguet was founded by Swiss horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, France in 1775. Breguet is one of the oldest surviving watch-making establishments in the world and is the pioneer of a number of watch-making technologies including the tourbillon and the first wristwatch–introduced in 1810. Easily recognized for their coin-edged cases, guilloché dials, and blue pomme hands, Breguet wristwatches are the epitome of classic luxury. The company’s distinguished patrons include Louis XVI of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, George III of England, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti, Dmitry Medvedev, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, and Prince Charles. Below is a list of the most expensive Breguet luxury watches of all-time.

5. Breguet Classique Grande Complication Pocket Watch – $873,400

This unique 18-caret yellow gold Breguet Classique Grande Complication Pocket Watch is the most expensive modern pocket watch in the world. The luxury timepiece features a hinged coverlid, a hand-engraved engine-turned guilloche dial in silvered gold with blued hands, an off-centered display, and hand-engraved and hand-wound movement with a two-way rotating crown.

4. Breguet Grande Complication Antique No. 4111 – $2.63 million

Acquired by Breguet president Mark A. Hayek in 2012 at Christie’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland, this antique Grande Complication Antique No. 4111 is one of the costliest Breguet antique watches ever sold at auction. Built on the chronometer principle and dating from 1827, this extremely rare and thin Breguet creation features an annual calendar, a manual perpetual calendar, and mean and apparent solar time.

3. Breguet Antique No. 2667 – $4.21 million

The second of the two Breguet watches purchased by Mark A. Hayek in 2012, the Breguet Antique No. 2667, is a relic of watchmaking history. The most expensive Breguet watch ever sold at auction, this thin 18-caret yellow gold pocket watch with two movements dates from 1814. Based on the chronometer principle, the timepiece was created by Abraham-Louis Breguet himself and features two separate dials–one of Arabic and one of Roman numerals. Both Antiques currently reside in the Breguet Museum in Paris, France.

2. The Duc d’Orléans Breguet Sympathique – $6.80 million

Originally commissioned by the Duc d’Orléans for his Parisian home, the Breguet Sympathique clock is the most expensive Breguet piece ever sold at auction–the piece was sold to a private collector in 1999 at Sotheby’s “Masterpieces from the Time Museum” auction. The ornate ormolu-mounted red tortoiseshell boulle-style clock makes this list due to the attached half-quarter repeating gold watch that is automatically wound, set, and regulated via the clock’s integrated cradle.

1. Breguet Grande Complication Marie-Antoinette – $30 million

The Breguet No. 160 Grande Complication, more commonly known as the “Marie-Antoinette” or “The Queen,” is a case watch originally designed by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Work on the watch began on 1782 and was completed by Breguet’s son in 1827–34 years after Antoinette’s death. Rumored to have been commissioned by Marie-Antoinette’s alleged lover, the watch is encased in gold with a clear face thats shows the intricate movement of the gears inside. Stolen in 1983, the watch was recovered in 2007–only two years after Breguet created an exact replica.

Photo by Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images for Breguet

Written by Derrick Krom

Derrick is a recent graduate of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia where he received a B.A. in English and Communication Studies. Throughout his life, Derrick has traveled the country and even got to study abroad in London, England for four amazing months. He's a guitar player, avid music fan and lover of literature, film, and all things entertainment.