FRENCH CONNECTION

French watchmaking rarely competes with Switzerland on industrial scale. Yet, the country continues to shape the craft in quieter ways-training thousands of watchmakers, feeding talent into the Swiss industry, and producing a growing wave of indie brands that punch far above their horological weight

- By Sharan Sanil

In 2025, Breguet marked its 250th anniversary year with a moment that felt resoundingly symbolic; at the prestigious Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, the watchmaker received the Aiguille d'Or, the competition's highest honour.

The winning watch, the Classique Souscription 2025, drew directly from one of Abraham-Louis Breguet's earliest pocket watch designs. The setting felt appropriate. Geneva remains the centre of modern haute horlogerie, and Breguet is one of the houses that helped define it. Yet the brand did not begin there. Abraham-Louis Breguet founded his workshop in Paris in 1775, on the Quai de l'Horloge on the Île de la Cité—a narrow street beside the Seine that still carries traces of the old instrument-making quarter where watchmakers, clockmakers and scientific craftsmen once worked side by side. From this workshop Breguet developed mechanisms that still define mechanical watchmaking today. The tourbillon remains the most famous example, but it formed part of a broader body of work that included the Breguet overcoil balance spring and a style of dial design that collectors still recognise instantly, and the industry itself seeks to laud.

Paris at the time supported a lively watchmaking culture. Ferdinand Berthoud built marine chronometers that helped the French navy navigate long sea voyages. Jean-Antoine Lépine refined the architecture of thin pocket watches and helped modernise movement construction. Their workshops sat within walking distance of one another, and for the better part of that era, Paris functioned as one of Europe’s most important centres of horological innovation.

This makes France’s modern position in the industry difficult to explain. When collectors talk about watchmaking nations today, Switzerland dominates the discussion. Germany and Japan appear frequently as well. France rarely enters the conversation.