Breguet adds to its regal Reine de Naples with an elegant new model featuring a grand feu enamel dial
Few watches have as long and storied a history as Breguet’s Reine de Naples. During her reign over Naples, Caroline Murat, Napoléon Bonaparte’s younger sister, was a long-standing client of Breguet, going on to collect more than 30 of the watchmaker’s clocks and watches. In 1810, she would commission a unique and unprecedented creation, the first watch designed for the wrist. The result would be a striking, oblong-shaped piece, which included several complications including a repeater, moon-phase indication and a thermometer.
This distinctive silhouette lives on in what has become one of Breguet’s most instantly recognisable models, which for this year is presented for the first time with a pure white grand feu enamel dial with numerals in contrasting shades of blue. One of the most difficult and demanding decorative techniques used in watchmaking, grand feu enamelling sees layers delicately built up on the dial, requiring it to be heated several times to a temperature higher than 800°C. The result is an intriguing depth of colour and sheen that catches and plays with the light. When the reflections hit at just the right angle, it allows a glimpse of Breguet’s secret signature placed at 3 o’clock.
The sophisticated look is completed with a white gold case, surrounded by a bezel set with 117 diamonds. It is powered by the manufacture caliber 537/3, offering a power reserve of 45 hours, which can be viewed to full effect via the sapphire crystal caseback.
