Entrepreneur James Symond spotted wearing a Breguet

Photographed in what appears to be a Sydney CBD high-rise — the Harbour Bridge and Opera House visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows — James Symond, the energetic CEO of Aussie Home Loans, is wearing a timepiece that quietly announces serious collector credentials. The Breguet Classique Tourbillon with its regulator-style dial layout is not a watch chosen for show-stopping flash; it is chosen for those who know.

The Breguet Classique Tourbillon references in the 3350 family present a guilloché engine-turned dial — almost certainly silver or gold — with the characteristic separation of timekeeping functions across independent sub-dials. In regulator configuration, the minutes occupy a central hand while hours and seconds are displaced to subsidiary registers, with the one-minute tourbillon cage — typically positioned at 6 o'clock — serving as both complication and visual centrepiece. Cases in this family measure approximately 40–42mm in 18-carat gold, with Breguet's signature blued steel hands and coin-edge case flanks.

The movement powering these references is a manually wound calibre with a silicon escapement in more recent iterations, offering improved thermal stability and reduced servicing requirements. Power reserve runs to approximately 50 hours. Breguet's tourbillons carry direct ancestral lineage to the 1801 patent — the maison did not merely popularise the complication, they conceived it specifically to counter the effects of gravity on a pocket watch movement carried vertically.

For Symond, a known enthusiast of fine watches and a figure whose entrepreneurial story — he co-founded Aussie Home Loans with his uncle John Symond — reflects an appreciation for precision and long-term thinking, the Breguet is an entirely coherent choice. It aligns with a collecting philosophy that values provenance and mechanical legitimacy over novelty.

On the market, Breguet Classique Tourbillon references trade at significant premiums, with retail positions typically above USD 80,000 depending on metal and configuration. Grey market values hold firm given Breguet's controlled distribution and the inherent desirability of any tourbillon from the original maison. This is a piece that appreciates both financially and intellectually.