Breguet Just Dropped Two Diamond-Set Versions of Its Classique Tourbillon Watch
Breguet has been getting creative with the tourbillon, its founder’s most important invention. Last month it dressed the mechanism down a bit compared to its usual formal surroundings by putting it in the sporty Marine Tourbillon ref. 5577. Now it’s dressing it up with the Stunning Sight and Starlit Night, two versions of the Classique Tourbillon 3358 that go well beyond simple gem-setting to an outstanding display of diamonds. When Abraham Louis Breguet toiled on his bench to invent the tourbillon in 1801, his goal was pure chronometry—stabilizing the escapement in the face of gravity. It was a formal instrument of timekeeping, cased in a classic, all-business pocket watch. He surely never imagined that the tourbillon would become a decorative element in itself, never mind surrounded by hundreds of diamonds.
The bridge of the 18-karat white gold Starlit Night is shaped like a shooting star, and set with 45 snow-set diamonds. Setting the tourbillon bridge has been done before by other brands, but it remains a rarity, and this application is next-level creative. The background is mother-of-pearl, but not just any mother-of-pearl. It’s given a glossy-blue varnish that makes it shiny like enamel but with a slight pattern that gives it a night-sky look. It is matched by a blue spinel used as the pivoting stone at the center of the tourbillon bridge. Aside from the sparkle—there are 70 more diamonds set on the bezel, lugs, and crown—what makes the watch striking is the depth. The diamond stars applied to the mother-of-pearl background are slightly raised to stand out against the sky, and the opening for the tourbillon carriage is sloped inward, like an arena, and polished to emphasize the depth. The bezel is sloped outwards, in the opposite direction, to make the diamonds stand out more, and the Breguet signature coin-edged case seems even more decorative here. Marie Antoinette, one of Breguet’s early patrons, would have loved it.
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The 18-karat red gold Stunning Sight version is all about the pavé diamond dial, set with 281 stones in a pattern of sizes tapered to curve around the edges of the chapter ring and tourbillon window. The arrangement gives the dial a sense of movement and draws the eye to the tourbillon, the bridge of which is set with another 14 diamonds.
Both versions of the Classique Tourbillon 3358 measure a very wearable 35 mm wide x 9.43 mm thick case, which is slim for a tourbillon. They contain caliber 187D, a manual-wound movement with a 50-hour power reserve. The Starlit Night is priced at $143,400, and the Stunning Sight, at $153,600.
For more photos of Breguet’s Starlit Night and Stunning Sight watches click here.
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