For the past several years, we have seen annually a number of watch brands grasp at the Chinese market with Lunar New Year watches. The efforts range from lazy to intensive, with some brands simply offering a different dial color, some using Chinese characters, and some doing both (if you can believe such boldness). There are a handful of brands, though, that seem to put more thought and time into their Lunar New Year watches, and Breguet is, without a doubt, one of them. For the past several years, the brand has issued at least one Lunar New Year watch, each year trying something new. It used bas-relief engraving for the Year of the Tiger, grand feu and champleve enameling for the Year of the Rabbit and engraved solid-gold and red enamel for the Year of the Dragon. Heck, for both the Year of the Ox and Year of the Rat, it carved the creatures into a shell for the dial! This year, the brand celebrates the Year of the Snake with the Breguet Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025, which uses a combination of engraving, guilloché, and painting — all done by hand.
The Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025 starts out with one of the simplest cases from Breguet. The Classique 7145 is made of 18k rose gold and measures 40mm in diameter. That shouldn’t be too large, and it allows the dial artistry to really do its thing. The caseband, of course, gets Breguet’s signature fluting, while the lugs emerge straight from the case at a slight angle. While this lug style may impede comfort and wearability on other watches, at just 6.5mm thick, the lug architecture doesn’t need to do any extra lifting. The watch is fitted with sapphire crystals on the front and back, both with anti-reflective coating and is rated to 30m of water resistance (certainly enough for an art watch).
The dial here is a masterpiece if I’ve ever seen one. It’s not the first piece of art we’ve seen from Breguet, and its quality shouldn’t really be any surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the brand. Like other brands that dabble in metiers d’art — like Vacheron, Blancpain, and Chopard— Breguet is a master of its crafts. The Year of The Snake watch has its snake and flora design hand-engraved the 18k gold dial. The engraving is then black coated and polished, at which point it is hand-guillochéd. Finally, translucent miniature painting is applied to bring the foliage to life around the serpent. The hands are classic Breguet, 18 rose gold with the “open-tipped pomme” indicating the time with the subtle 18k rose gold indices.
The Breguet Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025 is driven by the Breguet caliber 502, on the brand’s thinnest at just 2.4mm. It features much of the finishing you’d expect from the brand, as well as a hand-guillochéd 22k gold microtor. Accordingly, the automatic movement delivers a 45-hour power reserve at 21,600 vph, with a silicon balance spring and 35 jewels. While the movement itself indicates adjustment in six positions, as is too common with high-end brands, the specifics of those adjustments are not provided.
Breguet is still overtly playing to the Chinese market with this, but being designed for a specific market doesn’t mean a watch will only be attractive to that market. You may not care about snakes, China, or the Lunar New Year, but beautiful is beautiful and this watch is, too. The Breguet Classique 7145 Lunar New Year 2025 (Ref. 7145BR/15/9WU 06) is priced at CHF 69,000 and limited to 8 individually numbered pieces. For more information, please visit the Breguet website.
