Breguet White Gold Watches

Breguet watches enjoyed great success at the first edition of The Watches Days exhibition, which brought together around 50 watch brands in Geneva from November 12th to 14th. The Grand Prix du Public 2010, of which the laureates were chosen by around 4,000 voters without the intervention of a jury, awarded the 1st prize in the Men's Watch category to the Tradition Tourbillon Fus��e in platinum with Breguet balance-spring in silicon (Ref: 7047PT). Breguet's ladies' watch, the Reine de Naples Sonnerie au Passage (Ref: 8978BB) was also greatly appreciated and won 3rd prize in the Ladies' Watch category.Breguet Tradition 7047PT/11/9ZU This Grande Complication model in the Tradition line features the first ever Breguet overcoil balance-spring in silicon, with tourbillon and fusee-and-chain transmission. This exceptional watch, reflecting the architecture of the first tourbillon pocket-watches invented by Breguet, is presented in a platinum version and features a movement coated with a special anthracite-coloured metal alloy. The fusee-and-chain transmission, connected to the barrel, serves to guarantee constant force throughout the running of the watch. Several patents have been filed for the large tourbillon positioned at 1 o'clock, including one relating to a titanium balance and three for the Breguet balance-spring in silicon. Another patent has been granted for the power-reserve indication placed directly on the barrel. The Manufacture Breguet is particularly proud of this new model. Breguet is indeed in the vanguard of research and development, and does not merely invent but is also capable of implementing the technical developments in watches that are delivered rapidly and in non-limited production runs.Reine de Naples 8978BB/58/974 D00DThis year, Breguet celebrated the 200th anniversary of the creation of the first wristwatch ordered from Breguet by Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples. On this occasion, the brand has parented the first Grande Complication model in the Reine de Naples collection dedicated exclusively to women. The sonnerie au passage or automatic striking "in passing" is a sophisticated complication that serves to chime each full hour by two strokes repeated three times. It provides a graceful and discreet reminder of the passing of time. A pushpiece at 2 o'clock serves to stop this function if required. This new oval-shaped movement, in-house made by the Manufacture Breguet, was specially designed for women and elegantly combines the technical feat of an automatic striking function with the beauty of an entirely hand-engraved and decorated movement. Alongside the usual technical requirements, the movement design also took account of aesthetics and of the results of the fundamental research undertaken by the Manufacture Breguet on the acoustics of striking and repeater watches. The design of the bridges, of the oscillating weight and of the decorative motifs form the shape of a dove in full flight, which may be admired through the sapphire crystal case-back. The white mother-of-pearl dial is framed by a white gold case with an entirely diamond-set bezel. The striking hammers, amongst which a diamond indicates the activation of the striking in passing function, are visible in the upper part of the dial between 11 and 1 o'clock.http://www.thewatchesdays.ch

The Breguet name naturally evokes strong reactions from anyone who has even the most passing interest in the history of horology. From Abraham-Louis to the modern company that Nicholas Hayek recently brought into the fold of The Swatch Group, Breguet has long been at the center of horological excellence. This year has been particularly important for the company for several reasons, the first and most important one being that the shape and style of company Breguet will become under the direction of Hayek is fast becoming more apparent. The imposing strength of The Swatch Group and the ebullient character of its CEO were cited by many, perhaps unsurprisingly, as the reasons why the Breguet name should have been preserved as an independent house. After all, how could such a hallowed name be other than tarnished in the hands of a company that was more concerned with the unit price of quartz movements than proper horology? And anyway, didn’t Hay- ek buy Breguet only because he missed out on the purchase of the LMH brands (IWC, JaegerLeCoultre and A. Lange & Sohne)? What these questions failed to recognize, however, is that Nicholas Hayek cares deeply about the project of re-gilding the Breguet name could it be, perhaps, that he would rather have Breguet as his monument than Swatch? In the nearly three years that have passed since Breguet’s acquisition by The Swatch LED WATCH Group, Hayek has not been idle. Not only were the various parts of the Breguet operation integrated into The Swatch Group (including movement maker Frederic Piguet), but an enormous amount of work has gone into developing the future strategy for the brand. Obviously, the greater part of Breguet’s reputation rests in its history, and Hayek immediately took advantage of this by adding to the historical watch collection already held by the company. In the meantime, several auction records were broken as Hayek’s activities prompted a number of remarkable pieces to appear on the market��a ‘perpetuelle’finished in 1794 for comte Journiac St-Meard was in pride of place at the exhibition that accompanied the recent celebrations at Versailles. 2001 marked the 200th anniversary of A.L. Breguet’s groundbreaking invention of the tourbillon, his best known legacy to the world of horology and an unprecedented complication that is still to this day considered the benchmark of watchmaking expertise. Hayek took advantage of this momentous occasion to celebrate the revival of the Breguet name in truly grand style at the fam-ous palace of Versailles. (The highly anticipated celebration was originally scheduled for September 2001 but was postponed until this summer for obvious reasons.) A special limited edition “Breguet a Versailles Tourbillon” with e-namel dial was designed for the momentous occasion. Six hundred guests assembled in Paris and made their way out to Versailles to be welcomed inside the chateau for cocktails. This was followed by a concert in the Opera Royal that included airs from Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni interspersed with a narration of the life of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Having passed through the set of royal apartments that runs the length of the palace, guests arrived at the vast Galerie des Batailles with its imposing cycle of monumental paintings depicting the great battles in France’s history from the campaigns of Clovis that established the French monarchy to the great Napoleonic victories such as Austerlitz. The celebrations came to a dramatic close with a magnificent display of fireworks set against the foun- tains on the terrace. Over the past year, more of Breguet’s future plans have become apparent. Breguet’s distribution has been integrated into The Swatch Group’s LED Unique Watch complex infrastructure of national retailers and will be headed by well-known watch expert, Jean Marc Bories, who has recently taken charge of the brand’s U.S. distribution. It has been said that this change will be invisible to the Breguet customer except for the fact that service is promised to be of an ever im-proving level. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see whether there is any reaction from Breguet’s clientele to this bold move. Those shocked by such rampant commercialization of the Breguet name should look back to the example set by the great Abraham-Louis himself. Not only was Marie-Antoinette one of his most importantclients, but part of his genius was his ability to market both himself and his watches��witness the ‘Souscription’ scheme whereby clients paid de- posits and installments, only receiving the watch with the final payment. The most significant aspect of the new Breguet plan has been the changes made to the collection offered by the company, most notably the addition of several ladies’ semicomplicated and jeweled pieces. This represents a broadening of appeal for Breguet as a brand and runs hand-in-hand with the company’s strategic decision to branch out into pens and jewelry. At Basel this year, the ladies’ Classique wristwatch in 18K white or yellow gold was introduced to rave reviews. Powered by an automatic movement with 22K gold oscillating weight that is hand engraved on a rose engine, it features an off-center mother-of-pearl dial that is surrounded by a crescent-shaped bezel set with Top Wesselton diamonds weighing some 1.262 cts. Water-resistant to 30m, the new ladies’ Classique also boasts dia-mond-set numerals and hour-mark-ers. The impressive line of jewelry Breguet recently unveiled also manages to remain loyal to the brand’s prestigious watchmaking heritage as all of the pieces are in some way inspired by Luxury Sport Style LED Digital Date Lady Men Watch black various watch movements. A fine example of this is the elegant “Les Spheres de Breguet” pendant which features a black Tahiti pearl set in a diamond-paved “cage” that was inspired, quite fittingly, by the Tourbillon. Perhaps the most noteworthy element of Breguet’s plans for the future concern the development of a set of boutiques devoted entirely to the house. There is already the Place Vendome store, which also acts as home to the Breguet Museum and this is the model for locations such as New York and, just opened, London. Breguet is also closely involved with the Tourbillon stores that are devoted to haute horlogerie from a selection of the major houses.