BREGUET WINS 1ST PRIZE AT THE WATCHES DAYS 2011

BREGUET WINS 1ST PRIZE AT THE WATCHES DAYS 2011

Adrienne Faurote
By Adrienne Faurote December 10, 2011

For the second consecutive year in a row, Breguet has won 1st prize in the Men’s Watch category of The Watches Days exhibition held in Geneva from November 10th to 13th.

The competition  consistied of approximately 40 exhibiting watch brands. The Grand Prix du Public 2011, determined by thousands of voters without the intervention of a jury, awarded the Classique Hora Mundi (Reference 5717) its highest honor.

The new Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi which debuted at Baselworld 2011 is made of precious materials: 18-carat red gold or 950 platinum. Three versions of the dial are available, each representing one part of the world: the Americas, the European continent, or Asia.

It took the Breguet teams three years to design, perfect and develop this complication watch. It is the first example of a mechanical timepiece with an instant-jump time-zone display. This function allows the traveller to easily display the time in two pre-selected time zones, changing instantly from one to the other simply by pressing a button, without disturbing the operation of the watch. Changing the time zone affects not only the time, but also the date synchronised through a “tracking” calendar system – and the day/night indicator.

The finishes of this timepiece are equally exceptional, featuring the Breguet signature characteristics such as case middle with fluted sides, and added soldered strap lugs, and of course the famous immediately recognisable Breguet hands with their “eccentric moon tip”. The solid gold dial is hand-engraved on a rose engine to create a “wave” motif on the oceans, which are then coated with multiple layers of lacquer, while the continents are polished. On the day/night indicator, the sky is made of lapis lazuli containing numerous pyrite inclusions that look like tiny specks of gold and represent the stars. The sun and moon are made of solid gold.