Breguet CLASSIQUE 5447 Minute-repeater

The minute-repeater and perpetual calendar belong to the Grandes Complications, the ingenuity and technicality of which are the prerogative of a few, rare watchmakers. Need one also recall that A. -L. Breguet brought about a decisive improvement in this area by inventing the spring gong?

The minute-repeater, the summit of the watchmaker’s art, features a gong, the pure tones of which demanded a master-watchmaker with an excellent ear and a very deft hand, for the slightest deviation irredeemably wipes out the result of long hours of adjustment. Generously proportioned at a diameter of 40mm, the platinum case hides a movement that has been entirely engraved by hand and which has a sophisticated retrograde jumping mechanism to indicate the month at 10:30 on the dial.

At the end of the year, the hand travelling along the arc jumps almost instantly to go back to January and resume its journey. The date is shown at 6 o’clock in a dial that has been engine-turned in a delicate sunburst pattern where each ray matches a date. Served by elegance, the clarity of the dial honours the work of the House designers. The regular texture of its engine-turned, hobnail-patterned finish enables it to absorb rather than reflect light, thus making it easier to tell the time instantly and to read the perpetual -calendar information.