A Peek Into Breguet's Hallowed Restoration Workshop

Breguet’s grand complication workshop is a place where past and present collide, and vintage watches are reborn

- Brian Jones

We don’t need to tell you that watchmaking is a craft that’s steeped in tradition. You’re reminded of that nearly every time a manufacture adds a new piece to a longstanding collection or creates a piece inspired by said collection. This reverence of the past comes as no surprise because history and tradition are the bread and butter of manufactures.

Each time you purchase the wares of some venerable Swiss brand that markets its decades upon decades of watchmaking tradition, you’re buying a piece of that history. So, while you could certainly make the case that technologies like smartphones have reduced the necessity for watches as time-telling instruments, the fact remains that an intricate, impeccably designed work of horological art will never truly go out of style.

Still, with all this focus on watchmaking’s history and tradition, and the ubiquity of those terms when it comes to marketing efforts, it’s easy to overlook how manufactures actually apply that reverence for the old ways in their daily operations. Which brings us to an incredible place where two and a half centuries of watchmaking are abridged, and watches older than nations are restored alongside ultra-complicated modern pieces – Breguet’s time-straddling grand complication workshop.

Located in the scenic Vallée de Joux, the workshop overlooks the fields that lie beneath the Swiss village of L’Orient. Its purpose is simple: to take charge of, repair and restore any vintage clock or watch Breguet has produced, dating back to the manufacture’s founding in 1775. The workshop services historic pieces from Breguet’s own museum, as well as creations from any museums or private collectors who’d like to submit their vintage Breguet timepieces for restoration.