Breva Launches the “Miss Météo” Mechanical Watch

I’ll admit it: I completely missed this fabulous watch when it was released recently, and I want to make up for it—because I really love the concept.

The Breva Génie 1 is a mechanical watch capable of indicating weather forecasts to its owner. I own a watch with the same capabilities designed for mountain sports (Suunto), but its display is digital and its design limits it to sporting use, and absolutely not for the city.

In addition to the classic functions—hours and minutes displayed on a semi-transparent sapphire disc at 8 o’clock, small seconds at 12 o’clock, the power reserve of 65 hours indicated at 4 o’clock with a compass-rose-shaped indicator—the display we’ll call the “weather” counter takes its place at 2 o’clock on a black smoked sapphire disc.

The dial is genuinely successful, with its interplay of semi-transparent, smoked discs, excellent legibility, and a clear view of the movement and instruments.

The case measures precisely 44.7 mm across and 15.6 mm thick.

Weather-forecast functions

Let’s now move on to the watch’s functions. Watchmakers have previously tried to take up the challenge of displaying this meteorological complication, without success. How did Breva rise to the challenge?

There are two main categories of barometers: those that work with mercury pushed along a tube by air pressure, and “airless” (aneroid) barometers. It is this latter type of barometer that Breva chose.

The “weather” counter displays the weather forecast calculated by two aneroid capsules (atmospheric-pressure sensors that contract or expand depending on air pressure) stacked one on top of the other at 6 o’clock.

On the upper part of the dial, the altimeter hand sweeps across a scale graduated from -300 to 5,500 meters.

Setting the watch

As with digital watches equipped with a barometer, human intervention is sometimes required to correct one of the measurement parameters (a change in altitude, for example). Breva therefore provided a manual correction system.

• At 9 o’clock, the crown sets the time and winds the movement.
• At 2 o’clock, the knurled ring adjusts the barometric-pressure counter, and the push-button adjusts the altimeter counter.
• At 4 o’clock, the third and final crown opens and closes the pressure equalizer. When open, the crown allows ambient air (whose humidity is filtered by a Teflon fiber) to enter the watch. As air pressure varies (changes in weather), you need to use this feature and equalize the outside air with the air inside the watch to obtain an accurate altitude reading.

Why the name Breva?

For the record, the Breva is a warm southerly wind responsible for the microclimate of Lake Como (so dear to George, the capsule-coffee drinker). The brand’s creator, Vincent Dupontreué, had the idea of creating his ideal watch during a weekend in northern Italy. It took three years of development, in partnership with watchmaker Jean-François Mojon and Chronode, to launch the Génie 01.

The Génie 01 is produced in a limited series of 110 pieces (half in white gold and the other half in 4N rose gold).

Price: around 120,000 euros