History Repeating

Vintage Breguet dress watches are poised for a secondary market surge. Here’s why.

- Paige Reddinger

AMID THE SEEMINGLY never-ending hype around vintage sports models from Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, the pendulum has begun to swing, ever so slightly, toward dress watches. Cartier has been the trend’s main beneficiary thus far, but there have been recent rumblings that Breguet, too, is getting ready for a rise.

The consensus among cognoscenti is that the David Rothera models are the ones to get your hands on. Roth, a highly regarded Swiss watchmaker, worked for the house from 1975 to 1988 and was largely responsible for its renaissance during the period. According to Vincent Brasesco, watches specialist at Sotheby’s New York, this stretch—when Roth was inspired by Breguet’s old pocket watches and transformed their aesthetic for 20th-century wrists—represented a turning point for the manufacture. He also cites the current resurrection of the Daniel Roth brand, now under LVMH, as a cause for renewed interest.

But which watches, from that 13-year span, are the blue chips? Brasesco’s standouts are references 3330 and 3350. “The 3330 is a brilliant adaptation of a 19th-century AbrahamLouis Breguet pocket watch with unique apertures for the day and date, a dial resplendent with handworked