MECHANICAL HAUTE COUTURE

Modestly named the Breguet Classique Tourbillon Quantième Perpétuel 3795, this timepiece is an ode to Breguet’s mechanical skills, the apotheosis of finely mastered watchmaking art.

Since its beginnings in 1775, Breguet has designed a large number of timepieces equipped with a perpetual calendar, all of them as fascinating as they are complex. And the brand likes to focus on existing elements to rework them, always with the aim of striking innovation. This is particularly the case with the Breguet Classique Tourbillon Quantième Perpétuel 3795, a version of the 3797, which is itself filled with interesting mechanic ingenuity.

This new version highlights aesthetic elements, somewhat like a haute-couture garment that is attractive both for its individual parts and for the final result. Here, the dial is withdrawn to give way to a watch skeleton, revealing all the magic of the movement’s construction at its heart. The manually wound movement drives two complications: the tourbillon and the perpetual date. Placed at 6 o’clock, the tourbillon is held in place by an angled bridge and crowned by a triple hand marking the seconds. The perpetual calendar, meanwhile, is at 12 o’clock. It is set back in a semi-circle above the sapphire disc, and decorated with Roman numerals showing the hours and minutes. The day counter is at 9 o’clock, and the month counter at 3 o’clock, with a blue sun in its centre to show the leap years.

The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Quantième Perpétuel is available in rose gold or silvered 18-carat platinum, with a 41 mm-wide case, and is adorned with blue steel hands, as well as the secret signature identifying the brand. Between the skeleton design and hand-made guilloché pattern, the Breguet is attractive both for the complexity of its mechanism on display and for the global aesthetic appeal to the eyes.

Price: Platinum: CHF249,000 / Rose gold: CHF235,000 breguet.com

By Isabelle Guignet