A brand once worn by kings and statesmen now faces the challenge of relevance in a crowded luxury market. Now, amid its 250th anniversary celebrations, Breguet’s CEO Gregory Kissling is staking its future on clarity and craft.
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Two hundred and fifty years of history on one side, a brand slipping down the rankings on the other. That was the equation waiting for Gregory Kissling when he became CEO of Breguet last October.
With an anniversary tour on the horizon, Kissling’s first move wasn’t to unveil a product or launch a marketing blitz. He went inward, walking the Vallée de Joux workshops in Switzerland, listening to the watchmakers, craftsmen and engineers whose skills still underpin the house.
“My top priority was to get to know the people, the talent, the skills, and the daily challenges,” he said. “Very quickly, I realised how much passion and love for the brand exists within the team. That energy is our greatest strength and the foundation for everything we want to achieve.”
That foundation will be needed. For all its storied heritage, Breguet’s market performance has been heading in the wrong direction. In 2020, Morgan Stanley estimated it was the 18th largest Swiss watchmaker with CHF 240 million ($449 million) in revenue. By 2024, it had dropped to 29th place with CHF 165 million ($309 million).
Asked about this decline, Kissling framed the challenge as one of visibility and relevance. “Breguet has always prioritised quality over volume. That said, we recognise that visibility and desirability are key today,” he says.
“Our strategy is twofold: to reaffirm our role as an innovator in haute horlogerie plus undisputed reference in horology, and to reintroduce Breguet to new audiences through experiences, storytelling, and creations that connect past and present. The ambition is not just to regain rankings, but to strengthen the brand’s long-term cultural relevance.”
Before joining Breguet, Kissling spent more than two decades at Omega, where he rose to vice-president of product development. He was behind technical milestones like the Chrono Chime, Omega’s most complicated movement, and commercial hits such as the MoonSwatch collaboration. Earlier in his career, he trained as a microtechnology engineer and worked at Cartier as a movement constructor.
He’ll be hoping the same instincts that made the MoonSwatch a phenomenon can help lift Breguet’s anniversary beyond a history lesson.
So far, the celebration has been staged as a roadshow, not a single reveal. Paris, Shanghai and New York have already played host, with more cities to come before the finale in Versailles later this year. Each stop has been tied to a different part of the Breguet story.
“Breguet has always been international – our founder built one of the first true global networks,” Kissling says. “The city-by-city format allows us to connect locally with collectors, journalists, and friends of the brand, while tailoring each event to a chapter of our story that resonates with that city. It creates intimacy and relevance that a single global launch could never achieve.”
In Paris, the anniversary opened with the Classique Souscription 2025, a single-handed reinterpretation of an 18th-century subscription watch made in “Breguet gold,” a proprietary new alloy. Shanghai followed with the Tradition Seconde Rétrograde, inspired by a late-1700s tact watch, while New York received two Type XX chronographs referencing a Breguet-built aircraft that flew from Paris to New York in 1930. Each model was designed to be both a tribute and a signal that the brand intends to evolve.
The latest addition came in September with the Marine Hora Mundi 5555, a 50-piece world-timer that reimagines Breguet’s take on global travel.
This balancing act – honouring tradition while keeping pace with modern tastes- runs through every decision Kissling is making but is perhaps easier said than executed.
“The sweet spot is authenticity,” he says. “Purists want to see the mastery and innovation they associate with Breguet. Younger audiences are looking for meaning, craft, and stories they can connect with. If we stay true to who we are while opening the doors a little wider, both groups can find inspiration in Breguet.”
Boutique pop-ups, digital campaigns and anniversary exhibitions are part of that effort. At the same time, Breguet’s diverse range of collections each presents different opportunities and risks.
“I believe each of our collections has strong potential to grow, because they all tell a different chapter of Breguet’s story. The Marine speaks to modern elegance, the Type XX to our aviation heritage, the Classique and Tradition to our deep horological roots, and the Reine de Naples to our spirit of creativity. And we should not forget the Héritage collection, which is still there too,” Kissling says.
“The real challenge is not about which collection is harder to modernise, but about staying true to the DNA of each while keeping them relevant for today and tomorrow.”
Breguet CEO Gregory Kissling
The wider economic environment has not made things easier. In April 2025, President Trump imposed a 39% tariff on Swiss goods. Initially, one-kilogram and 100-ounce gold bars were ruled subject to the levy by US Customs and Border Protection, sparking turmoil in the bullion market, before the White House suggested gold would be exempt. In the lead-up, Swiss watch exports to the US spiked 149% in April, then slumped 9.5% in May and 5.6% in June.
For brands like Breguet, which depend on US collectors, the policy swings have created deep uncertainty. “We are watching the situation closely,” Kissling said. “The US is important for us, but it is one of many strong markets. The approach of the group and our House is to stay flexible.”
The year will close with a symbolic return to Versailles, a place with close ties to Breguet’s early patrons. Kissling sees the anniversary as a beginning, not a conclusion. “I would like that people to remember that Breguet is not only the brand of Abraham-Louis Breguet – it is a living brand, still inventing, still inspiring, still relevant. This anniversary is not the closing of a chapter, but the opening of the next one.”
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