Breguet Watch Guide: History, References, Prices, and the Opus Question | Ultimate Watch NYC

First, a correction a collector deserves before anyone writes a check: there is no watch called the "Breguet Opus." The Opus series belongs to Harry Winston, launched in 2001 as an annual collaboration with independent watchmakers like Francois-Paul Journe, Vianney Halter, and Urwerk's Felix Baumgartner. Breguet's tie to that story is real but quiet. When Harry Winston needed manufacturing muscle to get the early Opus pieces built, it drew on the haute horlogerie resources inside the Swatch Group, which owns both Breguet and Blancpain. So if someone brings us a "Breguet Opus" across the counter at 19 West 47th Street, the honest answer is that they own either a Harry Winston Opus or a Breguet under a nickname, and we price it accordingly. What follows is the real Breguet: founded in Paris in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the house that invented the tourbillon, and today one of the most under-appreciated names in gold-cased haute horlogerie. We buy and sell Breguet every week, so this is written from both sides of the glass.