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Black Tag Watches
Address: 20900 NE 30th Ave 10th Floor.
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Aventura FL 33180 USA
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The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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Pre-Owned Breguet Classique Retrograde Seconds 39mm 18K Yellow Gold — Silver Hand-Engraved Dial, Papers Dated 2006 (Ref. 5207BA/12/9V6)
Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the self-winding watch, the tourbillon, the pare-chute shock absorber, and the first known wristwatch. The Classique collection is the direct lineal descendant of the pocket watches he made for Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, and the courts of early-nineteenth-century Europe.
Available now at Black Tag Watches (Aventura, Florida), this example — reference 5207BA/12/9V6 — is cased in 18K yellow gold with a hand-engraved silver dial, powered by the in-house calibre 516DR SR with a silicon balance spring and 65-hour reserve, and offered in mint condition with its original Breguet warranty certificate dated 2006.
What Is the Breguet Classique Retrograde Seconds?
The Direct Descendant of Breguet’s Pocket Watches
Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823) is commonly described as the father of modern horology, and the attribution is not generous. During a working life that spanned the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Bourbon Restoration, he invented or definitively perfected the self-winding mechanism, the tourbillon (patented 1801), the overcoil balance spring now universally called the Breguet overcoil, the pare-chute shock-absorption system, and — in 1812, for Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples and Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister — the world’s first known wristwatch. His pocket-watch clientele included Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, and most of the European heads of state across his working lifetime.
The Classique as Living Heritage
The modern Classique collection is the direct lineal descendant of those pocket watches, carrying the specific design signatures Breguet himself invented into the twenty-first century: the coin-edge fluted case, the hand-engraved guilloché dial, the blued-steel “pomme” moon-tipped hands, and the Roman-numeral hour markers that carry Breguet’s own secret maison signature at 12 o’clock. For collectors of pre-owned Breguet, the Classique Retrograde Seconds is one of the references where that heritage reads most legibly — not as theme, but as continuity.
Dial & Case Design: Coin-Edge Yellow Gold, Hand-Guilloché Dial
Case Construction and the Classique Signature
The 39mm case is rendered in 18K yellow gold and stands only 9.85mm thick, with the Classique collection’s defining case geometry carried directly from Abraham-Louis Breguet’s own early-nineteenth-century pocket watches: a coin-edge fluted middle portion rising to a domed-style bezel, polished and hand-finished throughout, with soldered wire lugs rather than integrated case lugs. The crown is signed and the caseback is sapphire display. The soldered wire lugs in particular are a direct pocket-watch citation — a construction detail most modern dress watches have abandoned, and one that identifies the Classique as a deliberate historical continuation.
The Hand-Engraved Silver Dial
The silver dial is where the Classique’s heritage reads most legibly: hand-engraved on solid gold using the maison’s own rose-engine guilloché technique, in a textured pattern that catches light differently from any direction. The dial is deliberately decentred — the hours-and-minutes sub-dial sits offset above a lower retrograde small-seconds arc at 6 o’clock, and a retrograde power reserve indicator sits at 12 o’clock, graduated against a 65-hour scale. Blued-steel pomme hands sweep the time display; Roman numerals mark the hours, with the signature Breguet secret maison signature engraved at the 12 position. The composition reads as architectural rather than decorative: every function occupies its own geometry, the way Breguet’s own pocket watches were engineered to read.
Movement: Manufacture Breguet Calibre 516DR SR — Silicon Balance
The Silicon Balance Spring
Inside the Classique Retrograde Seconds is the manufacture Breguet calibre 516DR SR — an in-house automatic movement of 34 jewels running at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) with a 65-hour power reserve, developed and produced entirely by Breguet at the maison’s Vallée de Joux facility. The 516DR SR carries a specific technical refinement that reads at the level of serious contemporary haute horlogerie: a silicon balance spring — the “SR” in the designation denotes “silicium” — which replaces the traditional metallic Breguet overcoil balance spring with the maison’s own silicon equivalent. Silicon balance springs are chemically inert, non-magnetic, and dimensionally stable across a wide temperature range, and Breguet was among the first major maisons to adopt silicon regulating organs in production.
A 65-Hour Reserve and Boutique Finishing
The 65-hour power reserve — longer than most comparable automatic calibres in the dress-watch category — is driven by the specific barrel architecture the calibre employs. The movement is signed, numbered, and visible through the sapphire display caseback, with hand-bevelled bridges carrying Côtes de Genève and a signed gold rotor. For a buyer evaluating pre-owned dress watches on technical merit, the combination of a silicon balance spring and a 65-hour reserve places the 516DR SR among the more technically contemporary Breguet dress-watch movements.
Movement Specifications
Specification
Detail
Calibre
Breguet 516DR SR, in-house automatic
Balance spring
Silicon (silicium)
Jewels
34
Frequency
28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve
65 hours
Dimensions
26.2mm × 4.6mm
Rotor
Signed gold
Caseback
Sapphire display
Condition, Provenance & Documentation
A Defensible Partial-Set Configuration
The provenance position on this example requires specific handling: the watch is offered with its original Breguet warranty certificate dated 2006, but without its original Breguet presentation box. That is a defensible partial-set configuration for a reference now approaching two decades old — the warranty certificate carries the specific movement and case serial numbers that Breguet service centres treat as the primary authentication reference, and the signed yellow-gold folding buckle, the meaningful provenance signal at the strap level, is present and original. For a buyer prioritising horological substance and authentication over a complete factory presentation box, the configuration is straightforward; for a buyer prioritising a complete factory set with original box, an alternative example is the appropriate specification target, and this listing is priced accordingly.
Condition and Accessories
Detail
Information
Condition
Mint
Box
No
Papers
Breguet warranty certificate, dated 2006
Strap
Brown alligator, new
Buckle
Original Breguet 18K yellow gold folding
Full Specifications — Breguet Classique Retrograde Seconds 5207BA/12/9V6
Specification
Detail
Brand
Breguet (founded 1775)
Collection
Classique Retrograde Seconds
Reference
5207BA/12/9V6
Year
2006
Case
18K yellow gold, 39mm
Thickness
9.85mm
Case design
Coin-edge fluted, domed bezel, soldered wire lugs
Dial
Silver, hand-engraved rose-engine guilloché
Layout
Decentred time, retrograde seconds 6, retrograde power reserve 12
Markers
Roman numerals, secret signature at 12
Hands
Blued-steel Breguet pomme
Movement
Breguet calibre 516DR SR, in-house automatic
Balance spring
Silicon
Jewels
34
Frequency
28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve
65 hours
Caseback
Sapphire display
Water resistance
30m / 3 ATM
Strap
Brown alligator, new
Buckle
Original Breguet 18K yellow gold folding
Condition
Mint
Box
No
Papers
Warranty certificate, dated 2006
Why Buy a Pre-Owned Breguet Classique Retrograde Seconds?
The Quieter Yellow-Gold Configuration
The Classique Retrograde Seconds 5207 occupies a specific corner of the modern Breguet secondary market — recognised by collectors who read the Classique line as the direct lineal continuation of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s own pocket-watch heritage rather than a thematic dress collection, and largely bypassed by buyers whose Breguet familiarity stops at the Marine and Type XX sport lines. The yellow-gold 5207BA specifically is one of the quieter configurations the reference has been produced in — the white-gold 5207BB has broader secondary-market presence and current retail on the white-gold sibling sits at approximately $44,600 — and full-set examples of the yellow-gold variant from within the original production window are increasingly difficult to source.
Technically Contemporary, Historically Anchored
The silicon balance spring and the 65-hour power reserve place the calibre 516DR SR among the more technically contemporary Breguet dress-watch movements, while the decentred retrograde dial architecture is a specific compositional argument the modern Breguet catalogue has carried through multiple reference generations. Against contemporary yellow-gold dress-watch retail and against the current Breguet catalogue on the Classique Retrograde Seconds line, this 5207BA offers direct entry into one of the maison’s most historically-anchored collections at a level that rewards horological literacy over badge recognition — with an in-house manufacture calibre carrying a silicon balance spring, the warranty certificate from within the production window, and the signed yellow-gold buckle intact.
Available at Black Tag Watches — Aventura, Florida
Black Tag Watches is a pre-owned luxury watch dealer based in Aventura, FL, specialising in rare, certified, and fully documented timepieces from Breguet and the world’s leading Swiss manufactures.
View the Breguet Classique Retrograde Seconds Yellow Gold — Full Details & Pricing
A yellow-gold Classique with a decentred hand-guilloché dial, a retrograde seconds arc, and a silicon balance spring beating beneath — the modern Breguet dress-watch argument executed in the specific material and the specific collection that carry the maison’s eighteenth-century heritage most directly.
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