The talk of the horological town is the necessity to make horology more accessible to more people. Gone are the times when owning a timepiece was too financially onerous to most or too limited in terms of getting on the right waitlist or schmoozing with the right folks at last Saturday’s cocktail party. Either people had different and more pressing needs a few decades back they had to attend to—putting food on the table or clothes on their kids—or acquiring the right watch was made unnecessarily too difficult to them—too many hoops they had to contort through. In other words, horology was, and still is, out of reach to many people, whether they cannot afford to buy the watch they’ve dreamed of or because they do not feel that horology is for them. This is why fashion brands became popular, to give people who thought they wanted a watch the opportunity to get one, and to those who needed one the chance to acquire it for a reasonable sum of money. But fashion watches are notoriously poorly made and devoid of soul. 

This is where a brand like Breda comes in. 

Far from being a Swiss giant with roots dating back to 18th century La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Breda is a microbrand specializing in artistic watches complemented by reasonable spec sheets which we can all afford to slide into our personal watch box. However, Breda just didn’t pop on the global watch market last week. It’s been around since 2009 which might come as a surprise to you since today is the first time you may be hearing about it. And that’s fine. There are literally tens of thousands of brands on the market, many of which fly under the enthusiast’s radar and many more which are simply misunderstood by connoisseurs. Because there are certain design + price combos which generate negative thoughts in the minds of those who pretend to know a lot about watches, as if good design couldn’t be gotten for a small amount of money or a few hundred dollars couldn’t get you a good watch. Whichever it is, is wrong. Which is why we’re going to talk about Breda and what it can do for you, by taking a close look at the Pulse Tandem. 

Specifications 

As watch enthusiasts (read: nerds,) we have convinced ourselves that the timepieces we wear on a daily basis got to come with more technical specifications than we actually need because we have been told—by fellow collectors and the global watch media cabal—that a good watch comes with 200 meters of water resistance, a sapphire crystal, radioactive-level of luminescent coatings on the hands and markers, and a COSC-certified mechanical caliber. And we believe what people say because it sounds nice. Granted, on Mainspring I do spend a lot of time writing about over-spec’ed tool watches as being good timepieces to acquire, however I also point out that most of us do not live National Geographic-style adventurous lives (only a few seem to on social media.) Most ads showcase a well-dressed gentleman driving a vintage Porsche along the Big Sur coastline or attempting to ascend all of the world’s tallest peaks carrying heavy loads and fighting through snow and rain whilst finding time to post on Instagram. These ads sell dreams. 

Instead, most of us simply need good watches which are accurate, comfortable, and affordable.  Nothing fancy from technical standpoints however watches which present opportunities to wear a part of who we are on our wrist. Which brings us indeed to Breda then and what it tries to do for you and the watch industry. It’s goal is to make beautiful and artistic watches accessible to all, regardless of your gender and background, so that we can all take consciousness of our most precious resource—time, which is constantly passing by and which we are wasting a lot of—in a unique way, as well as derive enjoyment from wearing a pretty watch. Breda offers a wide range of designs which are all affordable, visually bespoke (as far as I can tell,) and seemingly decently robust. For the first impression I had, taking the Pulse Tandem out of the box and sizing the bracelet to my 6.50”/16.5cm wrist was that of reasonable quality. One which made me think of the Mr Jones Sun & Moon and Chez Maman Apollo Silver Moon which is a good thing. 

Again, nothing fancy but everything that does work for everyday life. The Pulse Tandem retails for $230 USD for which you will get a decent suite of specs when you will consider all things by the end of this review. First, a rectangular 316L stainless steel case measuring 26mm across, 35mm lug-to-lug, 7.6mm thick, and coming with a 20mm lug width. This version of the Pulse Tandem (there are a few, as we will see in the conclusion) ships on a single-link stainless steel bracelet which tapers to 18mm at the clasp, comes with push-pins, and a tiny double-pusher deployant clasp with no holes for micro-adjustments. I was able however to find the right fit, and since the Pulse Tandem only wears 94g sized to my wrist, it is comfortable to wear even a tad loose. The movement inside is a Miyota quartz caliber of unknown model, but one could assume it should be accurate to ±20 seconds per day and have a battery life span of about three years. There are two “windows” on the face of the watch, most likely made of mineral material. 

Design 

As you’ve noticed, the Breda Pulse Tandem is indeed reasonably spec’ed out, even though some of the things it is made out of are unknown to us. I say it is good because of how it feels on the wrist, where the watch head comes with a bit of heft compared to the featherlight sensation of actual fashion watches which feel both empty of personality and of tangible matter. And for the finishing on the case and bracelet are also superior to what a $15 AliExpress would get you, and because the push/pull crown is satisfying enough to use to set the time. Even though the Breda could not survive being tethered to the outside of a deep-diving sub or resist a Mous-style drop test from the top of a 100-foot dam, it feels solid enough for…drumroll…normal everyday life. And that is a point I insist on as it demarcates the Pulse Tandem from the millions of shit fashion watches many people wear to say they’re wearing a watch or to absent-mindedly accessorize their outfit. Or because that is all they can afford to buy at this very moment. 

The Breda Pulse Tandem is also a watch which highlights a point made hundreds of times on Mainspring: that good design can be had for a small amount of money even though oftentimes, great design comes at a cost. But since Breda has been around for 17 years, the brand ought to have found its own recipe for outputting large quantities of bespoke-looking timepieces with reasonable quality at attainable prices. For I was drawn to write about the Pulse Tandem after having gotten hands-on with it in Geneva in April of this year, after having seen photos of it online. In other words, I liked the way it looked but I needed to get a feel for it which I was lucky enough to do. So today I can report on the design and quality, the former being excellent and the latter sufficient. What we first see when looking at the Pulse Tandem is the rectangular case of petite dimensions perfect for many many wrists, entirely covered with brushed surfaces, flanked by a tiny knurled crown, and showcasing longitudinal chamfers and multi-faceted lugs. 

The crown is indeed tiny (3.3mm in diameter) albeit easy to operate. 

The upper section of the watch is where the magic is at. The Pulse Tandem invites us to do two things: first, to simply enjoy wearing a beautiful piece of horology on the wrist, the kind we want to look at for the sake of looking at it and not necessarily to tell the time. It’s part accessorizing and part self-expression, with a big dash of design. Second, to change the way we think of time and what we do with it, which Breda concocted through how it laid out the upper section of the Pulse Tandem. At the center-right, a double-aperture with a polished frame indicate the current time by way of Arabic numerals indicating the hours and minutes printed on rotating discs, where the 5-minute increments are indicated in a larger typeface and in-between, two minutes totalizing 60 once the minute disc made a full revolution. For example, in the photos below, the time reads 1:00 and then 1:08. Below the smaller aperture, a half-moon shaped aperture shows larger sections of two discs which you can see slowly moving as the time goes by. 

The Heart of the Matter 

The Breda Pulse Tandem is many things and so much more than you might have thought in the first place. It is miles apart from the fashion watches mentioned a few times in this review with lack of pretty much everything—creativity, durability, and authenticity. As we saw, from a technical standpoint, Breda offers something reasonable for the asking price of $230 USD. From a design standpoint, the Pulse Tandem is different from any everyday elegant watches I’ve seen thus far in my career—because that is how I would categorize it. For the combination of the rectangular brushed case and bracelet with two apertures of different shapes and functions is rather compelling at any price point and especially at this one. Through the smaller double-aperture, we get a reading of the current time, albeit not always a precise one since the window is small and the discs are constantly moving. (But keeping track of time with the accuracy of a field watch is not the Pulse’s raison d’être.) And through the larger window, we get a preview of what the time will be in the future which is different and more poetic from what we’re used to. 

And it’s nice to see something different in the watch world and at this price point which does make it possible for many of us to indeed acquire a good watch for a reasonable price, or to get the type of unusual and singular watch we might have been looking for without having to schmooze with the “right” people to get on the fabricated waitlist. You know what kind of brands/watches I’m referring to. Don’t you? Please tell me you got my point? 

Conclusion 

I will assume that today is the first time you may have heard of Breda and I’m darn sure happy you did. Although it is named after a city in Southern Netherlands (because the name sounded nice,) the brand was born in Dallas, Texas, in the United States of America, and has been prolific in designing new collections each offering something unique. From the rectangular Pulse we looked at today with the Tandem, which offers various variants within it terms of colors, to the oval Jane and Tank-like Virgil, the brand offers many options for self-expression, telling the time, and exploring a more artistic style of horology all the while putting its collections at the reach of anybody. And that seems to be the whole point of the brand and the Pulse Tandem.

Thanks for reading.