As a sufferer of chronic back pain, a good desk chair isn’t just a luxury. It’s a necessity. Adjustability is vital so I can tailor my position perfectly to support my back, relax my neck and shoulders, and still be able to get work done for long periods of time at my desk. It’s a tall order, but Haworth’s Breck Desk Chair has been equal to the task.
I’m almost embarrassed to tell you what I had been using as a desk chair before the Breck showed up. Suffice it to say, it was an antiquity as far as office furniture goes, tattered and long destined for the dumpster. My previous office chair offered little lumbar support and had a tendency to recline with the slightest weight applied to it.
The Breck solves those problems and more. It’s a well-designed chair, carefully planned after Haworth analyzed “information from 5.5 billion data points.” I’m a huge fan of the adjustable lumbar support and airy, soft Geostretch chair back. There are a few areas that can be improved, but the Breck largely earns its place among the best office chairs due to its ample adjustability and overall comfort.
Haworth Breck: Specs
Haworth Breck: Price and availability
The Breck Desk Chair costs $419 and you can purchase it directly from Haworth’s website. There are six seat colors to choose from and two base colors.
Haworth notes that the chair usually ships within three business days, and you can finance the purchase at checkout using Affirm. Haworth also offers free ground shipping and free returns within 30 days of purchase. That gives you a 30-day trial period to see if you like the chair. If you choose to keep it, Haworth offers a 12-year warranty.
Haworth Breck: Design and comfort
The Breck has Haworth’s lowest carbon footprint of any chair in its lineup, and it’s made with 58% recycled content. The chair itself is also 94% recyclable. Haworth says the shipping box is a third of the size of other chair boxes, “which translates to 300% greater shipping and fuel efficiency.”
It features five hard caster wheels mounted to a plastic base. The seat back is already attached to the frame out of the box – just pop it into the piston, slide the seat bottom into place, and you’re ready for comfortable sitting.
A Geostretch seat back conforms to your body, but the lumbar support panel ensures you don’t simply sink into oblivion back there. That panel adjusts up and down so you can customize your sitting position.
The arms adjust up and down, and the arm panels slide in various directions for a customized fit as well.
A weight-activated recline allows you to push back in the chair for a relaxed position. There’s also a three-position backstop, which prevents the chair from going too far back, depending on which position you choose.
I’ve been sitting in the Breck for about a full week now, several hours per day as I work. I immediately loved the adjustable lumbar support, and it has been a key benefit of the Breck chair. It is unique among the chairs I’ve tested so far, and it really forces me to sit up straight, preventing back aches after long days at the computer.
The fore-aft adjustability of the seat bottom helps, too. I’m able to push it back far enough to keep an upright sitting position. If you’d like something more relaxed, just pull it out a bit further.
The arm stalks adjust up and down enough to find comfortable positions, but I don’t love the side to side swivel of the arm pads. This feature isn’t unique to the Breck chair, and it’s a trend I’m not sure I enjoy overall. The arm stalks themselves also tend to wobble a bit. I would love to see the arms tightened a bit for a more solid feel.
The Breck is a good-looking chair. My test sample came with a Coal seat and a Snow base, which touts a modern look right at home in my home office. There’s plenty of color customizability on Haworth’s website too, so you can choose the color that suits your environment.
Haworth Breck: Adjustability
The Breck Desk Chair is super adjustable. The lumbar support is a highlight for me. The rest of the adjustments are fairly standard fare for a desk chair: up and down arm adjustment, chair height, and recline adjustment.
The seat fore and aft adjustment is unique among the crop of chairs I’m currently testing, and I have found it to be a big benefit. Just pull out the lever on the underside of the seat bottom, and slide forward or backward.
The arm pads have plenty of movement fore and aft, as well as side to side. As I mentioned, I’m not sure I enjoy this trend, but as far as this feature goes, the Breck’s execution is well done. They move, but don’t feel excessively loose or flimsy.
Haworth Breck: Assembly
Assembly was super easy and only took a few minutes. From unboxing to use, I spent about five minutes on the process, most of which was spent taking the parts out of packaging.
There are basically four main components to put together: The legs, the piston that raises and lowers the seat, the chair back (which connects to the piston), and the seat cushion. No tools are required for assembly.
Haworth Breck: Verdict
The Haworth Breck Desk Chair is worth the money for several reasons: It’s super adjustable, which means it’s easy to find a supportive and customized position for you; it looks great in just about any setting; and Haworth has done an admirable job cutting the environmental impact of this chair.
The lumbar support really shines, as does the seat bottom adjustability. These are both features found on fewer chairs in this price range, and they really set the Breck apart.
I’m not a fan of the arm pad’s 4D adjustment — it feels unnecessary, and while the Breck’s execution of this feature is solid enough, the pads tend to move around more than I’d like. The arms themselves could also use some firming up.
But ultimately, the Breck offers more lumbar support than much of its competition, and the Geostretch back panel is airy, comfortable, and conforming to your back. There’s too much to love about the Breck to get hung up on its relatively minor flaws.
