This year, Revolution turns 20. Two decades of chronicling watches, people and ideas have given us a front-row seat to a remarkable story: how an age-old craft has both preserved its soul and reinvented itself for the 21st century. To celebrate, we’ve chosen over 100 names and milestones that, for us, define the era so far. From leaders to watches, you can see the whole list here.

The wristwatches of Breguet have long been associated with fine guilloché dials and the classical details that define traditional watchmaking. Yet one of the brand’s most iconic and groundbreaking creations is an open-worked wristwatch: the La Tradition.

Breguet Tradition Seconde Rétrograde 7035 (©Revolution)

When it was first introduced in 2005, the La Tradition was unlike any other Breguet watch. It had no conventional dial. Instead, almost the entire movement, including the barrel and balance wheel, was brought to the front for full display. Its immediate appeal lay not only in the symmetry of the layout, but also in the sheer depth and animation of the dial, with many moving parts constantly at work.

The watch was not without historical grounding. Its design drew directly from pieces created two centuries earlier by A.-L. Breguet himself. In particular, it was inspired by pocket watch Nº 2292, which placed a small off-centered dial above a perfectly symmetrical movement. The La Tradition carried that concept into the 21st century for the wrist.

Breguet montres à tact No. 2292

The first La Tradition was a simple time-only watch, and its purity made it all the more desirable. Since then, the collection has grown to include a host of complications. Among them is a cleverly constructed chronograph, still perfectly symmetrical, with a separate power source and oscillator. At the top of the family sits the Répétition Minutes Tourbillon 7087, a watch that rethinks the very architecture of a chiming mechanism. Its gongs are not round but shaped and fixed to the bezel for optimal sound projection, while its hammers are arranged vertically rather than horizontally.

The oscillating weight is now in platinum, echoing the material choice used by A.-L. Breguet in his original perpetuelle winding system (©Revolution)

Free-sprung balance with a blued Nivachron overcoil hairspring and Breguet’s pare-chute shock protection system, which incidentally was invented for his perpetuelles (to protect the balance staff from shocks caused by the heavy platinum oscillating weight, especially when the watch was jostled or shaken) (©Revolution)

What makes the La Tradition remarkable is that, despite drawing from the past, it continues to embrace innovation. The chronograph and the minute repeater are clear examples, but even the base time-only models incorporate modern advances such as a silicon hairspring.

Breguet clearly recognizes the importance of this family in its history. For the brand’s 250th anniversary, it has created a special limited edition, the Tradition Seconde Rétrograde 7035. Proof that even a relatively simple version is enough to represent the line, the anniversary edition comes in a case of Breguet gold, paired with a flinqué enamel dial in rich blue over guilloché.

The beautiful flinqué enamel dial in Breguet blue, matching the screws (©Revolution)

Tech Specs: Breguet Tradition Seconde Rétrograde 7035

Movement: Self-winding Caliber 505SR; 50-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and retrograde seconds
Case: 38mm × 12.6mm; 18K Breguet gold; water resistant to 30m
Dial: Semi-skeletonized; hand guilloché 18K Breguet gold with translucent blue grand feu enamel
Strap: Navy blue alligator leather; 18K Breguet gold pin buckle