Imagine you are in a room with one of the
visual art’s biggest celebrities, all alone. Yes, I felt just like that when I spent some quality time with none other than the ‘Monalisa’ last June. The watch world’s big daddy Nicolas Hayek Sr., the owner of Swatch Group, pulled off yet another grand association for Breguet, this time
with none other than the Louvre Museum in Paris, where Monalisa rubs shoulders with the likes of Venus de Milo and The Victory of Samothrace.

We were the guests of Hayek Sr. for a private preview at the Louvre of antique Breguets from the Museum collection of Breguet and the Louvre. The exhibition is on for the public till September 7. I have earlier been to the Breguet museum at Place Vendôme but seeing the exquisite watches at the Louvre along with the famed paintings on the wall was a completely different experience.

Hayek Sr. has a passion for French history. The world at large witnessed it with the renovation of Petit Trianon. Having invested over five million euros for the renovation of the Petit Trianon, and devoting three-and-a-half years to creating an exact replica of the Marie-Antoinette pocket watch, the CEO of Breguet has turned his attention to the Louvre.

In April, accompanied by Joëlle Bourgois,
Ambassador for France in Switzerland, the Chairman of the Swatch Group made no secret of his delight and satisfaction as he presented this ‘magnificent’ cultural project to the press at Baselworld.
Breguet’s project is indeed nothing short of impressive in both scope and cost. Estimated at several million euros, comparable to the renovation budget for the Petit Trianon, the project launched
by the Chairman of the world’s number

one watch group, is for the refurbishment of the Louvre’s Conseil d’Etat rooms and the Salon Beauvais.

“It was a commonly-held belief in the watch segment that packaging made a product luxurious. At Breguet, we are concerned with content and true values. Culture is one of those values,” Hayek had then stressed.

The brand asserts its identity and philosophy through its constant capacity for innovation, the beauty of its watches and the strong cultural message expressed in diverse sponsorship activities. Its partnerships with the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, the Chateau of Versailles, the Lucerne
Festival and various philharmonic orchestras across the globe, to mention just a few, illustrate its commitment to promoting art and culture.