Building on its long history and the great tradition of the Master, Breguet It preserves with extreme care those fundamental values that are, for a Haute Horlogerie House, beauty, elegance, purity of line. But also, and above all, the mastery of great complications, as in the case of the minute repeater. While it is true that the minute repeater was not invented by the Master, he is credited with perfecting it with the invention of the gong. The sound was produced by the vibration of a blade spring instead of a bell, which had been in use until then.
These springs were initially rectilinear in shape and were placed transversally on the back plate. Later, Abraham-Louis Breguet began to "wrap" them around the movement itself, a solution still generally in use today. This made it possible to considerably reduce the thickness of the movements, which thus became easily usable even on pocket watches (initially, the minute repeater was developed on rather large table watches). At the same time, it improved the quality of the sound emitted, which was decidedly more harmonious and enjoyable.
Taking a leap forward in time, we come to the new version of the Classique 7637 Répétition Minutes, a concentrate of great technical savoir-faire and elegance and purity. The combination of pink gold with the grand feu black dial, the fruit of the skilful work of the Maison's craftsmen, is beautiful.
Obtaining the desired shade of enamel requires several weeks of work. This shade enhances the simplicity of the layout, which conceals the mechanical complexity: Breguet Arabic numerals, minute track and logo highlighted in powdered silver, Breguet 'pomme évidée' hands in gold.
The Classique case (42 mm in diameter) reveals all its peculiarities: the case middle, recognisable by its cannelé machining with a vertical groove, and the lugs, which roll up on themselves at the end. The only element that brings us back to the complication is the presence of the slide for activating the minute repeater on the case middle.
The movement is the manual calibre 567.2, which from the case back reveals the richly decorated, completely hand-chiselled components. The gold sound springs are fixed to the case middle instead of the mainplate, improving the quality and transmission of sound. It is also available in white gold with a midnight blue grand feu enamel dial.
Prices268,600 euros in pink gold; 269,700 euros in white gold.
