Jay Leno Explains Why He Scooped Up One of the Year’s Hottest Watches

A quarter-millennium young, Breguet is arguably the most important watchmaker in horological history. Its founder Abraham-Louis Breguet is responsible for the invention of several mainstays in watchmaking, including his signature tourbillon complication, the “Breguet” typeface that has been almost universally adopted across the industry, and forward-thinking business practices. Naturally, the brand’s history is littered with historically important watches, like the Type XX originally produced for the French Air Force in the ‘50s or a pocketwatch produced for Marie Antoinette.

Another piece of Breguet’s 250-year history was on the wrist of Jay Leno at the brand’s Beverly Hills boutique last week. During an event hosted in collaboration with Los Angeles’s premier watch-collectors gathering, Neighborhood Watch Club, Leno was wearing a very new watch based on a very old one. In April, Breguet debuted the Breguet Classique Souscription 2025—a wristwatch based on an early Breguet pocket watch. Reducing the time-telling process to a single blued steel hand set against a white enamel background with Breguet numerals, it’s a stunning tribute both to the company founder as well as to the brand’s 250th anniversary.

Mega-collector Leno is one of the few lucky owners of this special model. “It’s amazing that something designed 250 years ago still looks the same…it’s basically the same watch,” Leno said during a conversation with Vincent Brasesco, Breguet’s newly installed U.S. and Canada Brand President.. “[Breguet] was more of an artist as well as a mechanical genius.” Indeed, the Soucription as mechanical art seems to be striking a chord within the larger horological-sartorial zeitgeist: Just last week, Nate Bargatze wore one while hosting the Emmys, marking the watch’s first red carpet appearance and the beginning of a new chapter in the brand’s story.

There’s no dialed-in science to the way Leno collects. What draws him to a watch? “I know it when I see it. Something stands out,” he said. “I like classical design using modern techniques—there’s a lot of science and a lot of technology, but it still looks classical.” Although, when it comes to watches, he finds they have a lot in common with his other passion, cars. “It’s the mechanics,” he said. “I know I have to go home and wind my watch—I enjoy that. It’s the same with my cars. They require a certain amount of maintenance. It’s an emotional connection. You either get it or you don’t.”