Legacy Of Luxury: Two Centuries of Breguet’s High Jewellery Timepieces
5 min read
India and high jewelry have a time-honored bond. From royalty to the modern woman, we all love adorning those special pieces for momentous occasions. And when it comes to timepieces, there's just something magical about owning a unique piece. The Breguet Reine de Naples exquisitely bridges the realms of haute horlogerie and high jewelry. Its delicate yet dazzling aesthetic epitomizes femininity as refined as it is alluring.
I'm enchanted by the way this watch seems to capture the essence of grace. Its oval shape and brilliant gems transport us to the exuberance of Napoleonic Europe, while state-of-the-art mechanics keep pace with today's on-the-go woman. And the history of this watch takes us back to the royalty!
It is said that Breguet created the renowned No. 160 watch specifically for the Queen, “Marie-Antoinette”. For a long period, it remained the most complicated watch in watchmaking history. In 2008, Breguet completed an identical recreation of the original long-lost design that resurfaced in 2007. That same year, in another tribute to its distinguished ambassador, Breguet also restored Versailles’ Petit Trianon, the private estate cherished by the ruler – a patronage demonstrating exceptional dedication.
Armed with keen intelligence and a penchant for the finest things, Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples and Napoleon's youngest sister, commissioned an extraordinarily original Breguet watch worn on a bracelet – the first timepiece designed from the start to be worn on the wrist.
Through the ages, the allure of Breguet’s peerless ingenuity persists. Its heritage as a paramount innovator and virtuoso of aesthetic perfection keeps enticing devotees worldwide.
Breguet also honors the ancient art of cameo carving through unique watch and jewelry creations. These showcase a clever amalgamation of avant-garde technology and age-old hand-crafted expertise. Thanks to an exclusive partnership with the world’s finest master cameo carvers, Breguet adorns its collections with a splendid spectrum of iridescent colors and one-of-a-kind designs. Each cameo engraving requires remarkable dexterity and artistic virtuosity, demonstrated by generations of specialized artisans.
Today, Breguet persists as a pinnacle of high watchmaking and jewellery. Its current collections encompass exquisite grande complication timepieces alongside high jewellery creations adorned with dazzling diamonds and precious gemstones. Through a deft marriage of technical mastery and dazzling artistry, the Maison continues demonstrating its unique ability to amalgamate mechanical prowess with contemporaneous style.
Here are three high-jewellery timepieces that showcase the prowess of the House of Breguet and are a testament to the Queen in you!
1. Breguet Reine de Naples 8938
The Breguet Reine de Naples 8938 is a new oval-shaped timepiece added to Breguet's collections in 2021. It features a delicate "snow" setting of over 500 diamonds across the dial, bezel, lugs, and crown, offering over 4 carats of total diamond weight. The gold case houses a self-winding mechanical movement with silicon escapement and balance spring. Additional details include an offset natural white mother-of-pearl chapter ring with Breguet numerals, Breguet's signature moon-tipped hands in blued steel, along with more diamonds set into the caseback. This glittering watch has a bracelet to add to the oomph!
Drawing inspiration from the first-ever wristwatch Breguet created in 1812, the Reine de Naples line pays tribute to the rich heritage of the storied Maison while appealing to the modern, sophisticated woman who appreciates technical innovation and timeless elegance.
2. Breguet REINE DE NAPLES 8958 Cammea
The Reine de Naples Cammea timepiece uniquely honors the tradition of cameo engraving - an ancient art form perfected in Torre del Greco, Italy. Cameos are relief carvings on layered materials with contrasting colors, traditionally done on semi-precious stones and shells.
The Cammea dial is an authentic miniature sculpture carved from the shell by master craftsmen. The offset hours and minutes hands discretely give prominence to the central cameo artistry. The diamond-set white gold case protects the delicate carving under a sapphire crystal. A hand-guilloché gold rotor with a mother-of-pearl insert is visible through the transparent back.
This watch pays tribute to the artistic mastery of cameo engraving - an exquisite craft straddling the line between trade and fine art. With scarcely two millimeters of shell, cameos demonstrate unbelievable delicacy and skill refined over generations. Breguet celebrates this creative dedication by showcasing bespoke cameo pieces as dials and adornments within its timepieces. The result is a unique fusion of horology and figural sculpture.
3. Breguet Reine de Naples “DAY/NIGHT” 8998
Last year, Breguet introduced the Reine de Naples Jour/Nuit model featuring a graceful mechanical ballet depicting the daily journey of the sun and moon. This year, a new gem-laden rendition pays tribute to Breguet’s jewelry prowess. The case dazzles with 131 baguette-cut diamonds, complemented by a shimmering diamond frosting on the dial. The briolette diamond crown completes the resplendent styling.
Inside, the manufacture movement animates two overlapping dials in a symbolic infinity “8” display – lapis lazuli moon phase opposite the radiant spin of the diamond-set balance wheel representing sunrise and sunset. Tableau elements like mother-of-pearl clouds and gold stars enhance the enchantment. Sparkling Roman numerals and polished hands encircle to indicate the hours and minutes with refinement.
By astutely fusing mechanical artistry with jewelry virtuosity, Breguet has created a unique complication that shines aesthetically while speaking poetically to women of taste and discernment.
Breguet’s Reine de Naples collection has always exuded poetic flair – an impression likely stemming from both its oval “origin of life” case shape and its tradition of housing mechanical complications exclusively crafted for women. Timepieces like these are so much more than jewelry or mechanics alone; they are wearable stories that mark our most meaningful moments.
