The Collector’s Nook – The Breguet Chronograph 3230 and 3237

Welcome again to our Collector’s Nook sequence about watches from the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, and description why we expect they’re cool and why they deserve your consideration! A couple of weeks in the past, we examined the primary Valjoux-7750 powered split-seconds chronograph – the legendary IWC Pilot’s Watch Doppelchronograph 3711. This time round, we’ll check out one other chronograph gem from the other finish of the sporty-dressy spectrum. That watch is the Breguet Chronograph 3230/3237, one of many first references designed by post-quartz disaster Breguet, an organization with a grand and storied historical past however one which had misplaced route as a consequence of quite a few modifications in its possession. Although Breguet wants no introduction, after all, I will provide you with a brief recap of the corporate’s historical past earlier than we dive into an absolute gem of a watch that has managed to remain underneath the radar till now, the good-looking and essential 3230 (or later 3237).

The identify Abraham-Louis Breguet is one which even novice WIS-in-making are certain to come across early on of their careers. Merely put, Breguet left an indelible mark on the historical past of timekeeping. His achievements, each technical and aesthetic, have been groundbreaking and laid the inspiration of recent watchmaking as we all know it. 

Abraham-Louis Breguet

Unique drawing by Abraham-Louis Breguet for patent request, 1801. Institut Nationwide de la Propriété Industrielle, Paris.

Born in 1747 within the coronary heart of watchmaking Switzerland, in Neuchâtel, Breguet moved to France on the younger age of 15 – this determination would see his profession and fame take off. A prolific inventor, Breguet’s most well-known contributions embrace the tourbillon regulator (patented in 1801), a proprietary shock-protection system pare-chute), an automated winding system, and a particular terminal curvature for the stability spring, now named the Breguet overcoil in his honour. It was additionally Breguet who’s credited with popularizing the usage of guillochage to embellish watch dials, first utilizing engine turning on his pocket watches round 1786. 

After Abraham-Louis Breguet handed away in 1823, Breguet’s firm remained within the Breguet household for 2 generations earlier than it was bought to the English-born watchmaker Edward Brown, then the top of the corporate’s watchmaking workshop, in 1870. The wars within the first half of the 20^th century led Breguet to grow to be a provider to the aeronautical business, a growth that finally led to the Kind XX flyback wrist chronograph that was made for the French naval air pressure. 

Breguet after the quartz disaster

Although the corporate had continued its manufacturing of stylish timepieces, its focus within the 20^th century had positively turned towards extra utilitarian timepieces. That was to vary in 1970, when the brothers Jacques and Pierre Chaumet, heirs to the high-end Parisian jeweller of the identical identify, acquired Breguet with the purpose of returning the corporate’s identify to the top of horology. One of many first enterprise choices made by the Chaumet brothers was to get a sure Daniel Roth to hitch the reborn Breguet.

Daniel Roth was born in Good to a household with horological roots. After a seven-year tenure at Audemars Piguet, Roth was found by the Chaumet brothers and was sufficiently satisfied by their imaginative and prescient that he joined the small group at Breguet. He, along with François Bodet, was accountable for the rebirth of the aesthetic cues that may grow to be a trademark for contemporary Breguet: guilloché dials, coined case flanks, welded lugs, impeccable ending, and most significantly – excessive problems.

Within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, on high of the quartz disaster, Chaumet confronted heavy losses from its diamonds enterprise and Breguet was purchased out by Investcorp S.A., a Bahrain-based boutique funding financial institution, which then restructured the enterprise and returned it to profitability earlier than lastly promoting it to the Swatch Group in 1999. 

The Breguet Chronograph 3230/3237 – The Fundamentals 

The Breguet Chronograph 3230 has an old-world attraction and timeless enchantment – it’s the quintessential gown chronograph. The case measures 36mm in diameter and has a sandwich-like development the place the bezel and caseback protrude barely previous the caseband, which is coined and completed by hand. The bezel is polished and barely domed, a design element that contrasts with the straight lugs that jut straight out from the case. The pump-style pushers are classically classic of their look and completely complement the opposite design components of the watch. 

The dial, a strong gold clean, is reduce on a rose lathe earlier than it undergoes a galvanic remedy in silver. There are a number of guilloche finishes on show: the 2 subdials are adorned with wave-like striations, a Clou de Paris hobnail texture adorns the centre of the dial, and the outer tracks for the time, working seconds, and chronograph minutes indications are round brushed. The model identify and the watch’s serial quantity are printed on two small plaques at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock – a nod to how Abraham-Louis Breguet made his watches. The palms are blued metal, with pomme-style (a mode we now name “Breguet”) hour and minutes seconds, counterweighted baton seconds indications, and a leaf hand for the chronograph minutes. 

A fast phrase on the sister reference 3237. The 2 references 3230 and 3237 are similar by way of case dimension, design, and dial format. From Breguet’s historic information, evidently the reference quantity 3230 was used as a generic reference for each watches with strong and show casebacks. The reference quantity 3237 was later launched particularly to designate these watches with a show caseback. 

Above: pink gold, white gold and “Tuxedo” variations (all pictures by ACollectedMan)

The ref. 3230 and ref. 3237 have been produced in yellow gold, rose gold, white gold, and platinum, listed left to proper by growing rarity. Moreover, even rarer than the platinum fashions, Breguet made a variant of the ref. 3237 with a two-tone tuxedo dial, with a black hours and minutes observe outboard the traditional silver dial centre. In line with archival supplies, these too have been produced in all 4 case metals, although they seldom come up on the market and command exceptionally excessive costs as a consequence of their low manufacturing. 

Powering this elegant watch is a motion based mostly on the Lemania ébauche 2310. With the sudden obsolescence of all issues associated to mechanical watchmaking within the aftermath of the quartz disaster, the information of problems and the instruments wanted to make them have been severely diminished. The businesses that continued making mechanical watches had solely a handful of suppliers to whom they may flip – for chronographs, it was Lemania. 

The 2310 ébauche wants no introduction, having served as Omega’s workhorse chronograph calibre within the Speedmaster as much as 1968 and in addition as the inspiration for the Patek Philippe ref. 3970 of 1985 – a perpetual calendar chronograph that cemented the corporate’s dedication to problems and old-school watchmaking. Why was this motion so standard and so versatile? First, and most crucially, it’s a strong and dependable motion. Second, its small 27mm diameter allowed its use in a mess of various case configurations and dimensions. Lastly, its slim profile allowed it to function a platform for extra dial-side problems whereas preserving the general thinness of the watch. 

The Breguet Chronograph 3230/3237 is powered by the calibre 533, Breguet’s 21-jewel model of the motion that was upgraded with a swan’s-neck regulator and a stability spring with a Breguet overcoil. The motion is a far cry from its utilitarian guise because the Omega cal. 321 and is completed to a really excessive diploma – all bridges and chronograph levers are brushed on their surfaces and bevelled on their edges. The regulator index, the screw heads, the column wheel, and the screw and jewel countersinks are all black polished. 

Why do you have to contemplate the Breguet Chronograph 3230/3237?

The neo-vintage period of Nineteen Nineties Breguet appears to have escaped consideration as a result of Breguet as a model can not boast of the identical lengthy, unbroken, and unbiased historical past of the opposite Swiss Haute Horlogerie homes. Breguet as an organization had appreciable ups and downs and modifications in possession, which sadly broken its cachet. 

However now, let’s come to the explanations I really feel that the ref. 3230 and ref. 3237 should be in your radar, beginning with the Daniel Roth connection. The ref. 3230 was one among Roth’s initiatives throughout his time at Breguet, which makes it one of many first fashionable references of the post-quartz-crisis Breguet. Silas Walton of A Collected Man has the next to say: “For me, the reference 3230/3237 chronograph is among the nicest expressions of Daniel Roth’s affect on fashionable Breguet. Incredible proportions, unique design and a beautiful motion. Amongst the neo-vintage classics of its time, it’s grow to be a up to date icon.”

After Investcorp S.A. acquired Breguet, Daniel Roth struck out on his personal and launched his eponymous model “Daniel Roth” in 1989. By comparability, Philippe Dufour launched his first wristwatch underneath his personal identify at Basel World in 1992, and François-Paul Journe based his eponymous firm in 1999. 

The Daniel Roth model was a continuation of the model Roth had established at Breguet, giving a extra fashionable and private contact. Monetary difficulties pressured Daniel Roth to promote his firm on the flip of the 21^st century. Ever the unbiased, nevertheless, Daniel Roth didn’t let this misfortune maintain him from his ardour: in 2003, he launched the Jean Daniel Nicolas Two-Minute Tourbillon, the primary watch of his new enterprise, which he named after his spouse and son. We live within the heyday of unbiased watchmaking – it is very important acknowledge the numerous connection of neo-vintage Breguet with the grandfather of the indie motion. 

Subsequent purpose to contemplate the ref. 3230 – the aesthetics. I do know this one is a subjective level, however please indulge me for a minute! Holding the ref. 3230, you get the sense of holding one thing that was crafted with the utmost consideration to element. You’re invited to take a better look… and the nearer you look, the extra you uncover and admire. Take, for example, the small recess on the bezel and the caseback at 3 o’clock to make it simpler to control the crown. Or the “open 6” and the fragile serifs of the font used for the dial textual content. You would possibly end up torn on the dimensions – within the context of gown timepieces, 36mm lies on the smaller finish of the spectrum. Although arguing over this level is silly (watch diameter preferences being subjective), I’ll say that the straight lugs on the ref. 3230 / 3237 lends them a far better wrist presence than their diameter alone would counsel.

The third purpose is relative worth. The ref. 3230 and ref. 3237 in yellow gold might be had ranging from EUR 16,000, with the rarer rose gold, white gold, platinum, and tuxedo references fetching far increased costs of double these of the yellow gold fashions. Neither the ref. 3230 nor the ref. 3237 have been mass-produced watches, with manufacturing within the tons of, not the 1000’s, of items. Market costs have began to replicate the relative shortage and worth of the reference, so for those who’re desirous about buying one, higher be fast about it!

The ref. 3230 and ref. 3237 maintain a really private which means for me. After I was researching this very article and typing collectively the primary tough draft, I merely couldn’t cease fascinated with the watch. I began obsessing a lot over it, in actual fact, that I began attempting to find one myself. A few weeks later, I had added one to my assortment! All I can say is that it has been an unbelievable privilege.