Sharply dressed, engaging and enthusiastic about all things Breguet, CEO Gregory Kissling is a man on a mission. It is no secret in the watch world that the jewel in the Swatch Group crown has not performed as it would have been expected over the last few years. But cometh the hour, and cometh the man. With the illustrious brand celebrating its quarter of a millennium, Montres Breguet has spent its celebratory year raising its profile, with a series of watches that demonstrate their history, dedication to craft and the unique style that makes them highly sought after by collectors.
It has been something of a mystery that a brand with an embarrassment of riches – with inventions and archives stretching back to its founder, and the famed and infamous of the last 250 years as clients – was struggling. Before Gregory Kissling’s arrival, the consensus on Wall Street was not only that the Swatch Group was underperforming, but more worryingly, earlier in 2025, the stock price took a hit and slumped to its lowest price in 16 years. However, since April this year, the downgrade has been reversed with analysts far more upbeat, particularly about its luxury brands. Overall, since the first new Breguet release in 2025, the Swatch Group share price has risen approximately 15 percent. This can mostly be attributed to Gregory Kissling and his plan for Montres Breguet.
Left: The original Breguet Souscription pocket watch conceived in 1794 and released in 1796.
Right: The 2025 Breguet Classique Souscription in a new 18kt gold alloy case, with its classic
grand feu enamel dial and a new in-house movement (calibre VS0000).
Appointed CEO on 1st October 2024, Kissling walked into a company that was not prepared for the auspicious year to come. He admits with a sigh that “There was absolutely no plan for the anniversary when I joined Breguet.” In a few short months, the considerable resources of the brand have been marshalled to produce a series of limited editions on a global scale where each location and horological complication have been purposefully selected. Kissling was in London for the fifth release, the Marine Hora Mundi, a unique world time watch that used NASA’s “Black Marble” nocturnal vision of the earth as its inspiration. The métiers d’art dial uses phosphorescent enamel (possibly for the first time in a watch) to illustrate the location of settlements across the planet. It showcases not only horology, but Breguet’s depth in enamelling as an artisan craft.
Kissling’s first act for the anniversary year was to “go back to the future.” The first new release was the Classique Souscription – essentially Abraham-Louis’ original timepiece modernised for the wrist. It featured similar movement architecture, the same manufacturing techniques for the enamel dial, a single hand individually blued by an artisan, plus the secret signature found on all watches from the master applied using a pantograph dating of the founder’s era. With a new gold alloy for the case, “Breguet gold”, the Souscription for 2025 was an immediate sellout. Kissling went further into the archives and redesigned the presentation box, each individually numbered with the watch.
Since the Souscription was released in Paris in April, other models have followed. The new releases have been accompanied by an exhibition in the city boutiques, entitled Les Tiroirs du Temps. The show debuted in Paris and will also finish in the City of Lights, 1st December, 2026.
The Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555 is unique for its double-sided, transparent, hand-painted grand feu enamel dial with a glowing world map and a patented mechanical memory system for instant dual time zone changes.
This strategy has had a twofold effect. The first is the obvious highlighting of all that Breguet can accomplish from the wealth of history in its archives. The second is that the watches and accompanying exhibition have raised Breguet’s profile considerably. Kissling comments, “These are challenging times. Our key markets in the past were Russia and South-East Asia, but that has changed. At the moment, we have lost the traditional Russian market where we had strong ties. In Japan and Korea, we are still performing well, and until the recent tariffs, the US was looking very promising.” Nonetheless, the impetus of the anniversary year is having a noticeable positive effect on demand.
While heritage has provided the foundation for this anniversary year, Kissling is clear that innovation must follow. He admits that the last major technical breakthrough was over a decade ago, when Breguet pioneered magnetic pivots. By celebrating and honouring the past, Kissling is staking a claim on the future, engaging the riches in Breguet’s archives for the prosperity of the brand, to have it rightfully sitting as the premier watch brand, not just for the Swatch Group, but for horology in general.
Author: Andrew Hildreth
Read the full interview with Gregory Kissling, including his insights on Abraham-Louis Breguet’s revolutionary business model and his plans for Breguet, in the print winter edition of I-M Inquisitive Minds, available to pre-order at an early bird price, HERE.
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