Sport Chic
by Jeffrey S. Kingston
There certainly was nothing “sport chic” conveyed by the designs of Breguet’s historic marine clocks. Nor should there have been. Those instruments for navigation were not personal style expressions of the ship captains. But this is the mission of every wristwatch. So it is that the Marine collection has been conceived not only with a nautical style, but one that communicates a contemporary vibe that fits equally with jeans and elegant dress.
For most models, there are now two distinct dial aesthetics—one for the precious metal models and a second for the titanium versions. Hand guilloché dial decoration is core to Breguet, so much so that Breguet produces the greatest number and widest range of hand guilloché decoration in the watch world. Fueling this effort is the devotion of Breguet’s guillocheurs to the conception of new motifs. For many gold and platinum models within the Marine collection, they have created an original ocean wave pattern. Study of the design reveals its subtle complexities. Its finely cut wave lines cross one another demanding extraordinary skill from the guillocheurs to ensure that those intersections are perfectly even and the lines immaculately clean. For the white gold and platinum models the dial is endowed with a deep blue color. The rose gold versions are either silvered or endowed with a gray hue.
The modern Marine collection has been conceived not only with a nautical style, but one that communicates a contemporary vibe that fits equally with jeans and elegant dress.
Until now, titanium cases have been rarely seen at Breguet, as only one model of the Type XX chronograph has featured the metal. For the new Marines, titanium is found across all men’s models except the Équation du Temps Tourbillon, the extra-flat Tourbillon, and the Hora Mundi. Titanium is an ideal material for sport, particularly when there is a link to the sea. Not only is its lightness on the wrist prized, but titanium is extraordinarily resistant to corrosion, vital in a salt water environment. There is an additional bonus, titanium is non-allergenic, an important consideration for those with sensitive skin. Signaling the new titanium models, comes a dial style unique to the material with its subtly brushed gray or blue color. Although the surface appears essentially smooth, there is in fact one element realized with hand done guilloché, which consists of the fine line surrounding the Breguet legend and timepiece number.
With the titanium models comes the option of a titanium bracelet. This too takes advantage of the lightness of the material. The sporting spirit of the titanium bracelet is fortified by its deployant clasp, secured by a locking system.
Although the first model in the refreshed collection, the Équation du Temps Tourbillon featured traditional applied Roman numerals set upon a silvered chapter ring, the body of the collection offers a new avant-garde design. The luminescent filled numerals themselves are carved into boldly shaped larger blocks. For the titanium versions, the numerals are affixed directly upon the body of the dial. For the precious metal models, the numerals are placed upon a perimeter zone of the dial which has been smoothed and brushed with a fine circular pattern and which surrounds the guilloché center. Further outside of the luminescent principal numerals are small applied-filled indexes in the form of an inverted trapezoid inspired by marine number flags. Minute markers are small luminescent applied dots.
LUMINESCENCE
LUMINESCENCE
The Marine collection boasts signature styles for its Roman numerals and hands. The numerals are carved into boldly shaped blocks; the hands with a modernized version of Breguet orbs. Both hands and numerals are luminescent filled.
The hands are a mixture of the new and the pre-existing. The hour and minute hands echo the design that has marked the Marine collection since 2005. Of course, the shape incorporates Breguet’s signature off-centered orbs located near the tip. Fitting with the Marine collection’s sporting spirit, the orbs are luminescent filled. Subsidiary hands have received an entirely new treatment.
The counterweight on all the large seconds hands or, the case of the chronograph, the chronograph seconds hand, as tradition calls, features a “B” but with a twist. Rather than a standard “B” font, it is in the shape used for the letter “B” in marine signal flags. Flags inspired the shape of subdial hands as well. The blunt nose triangular shape of the subdial hands recalls that of international maritime number flags.
The nautical theme is carried out in the fine details of the timepieces. One example is the counterweight on the seconds hand which recalls marine signal flags.
Completing the re-visiting of the Marine collection is the new design for the case. Across all the collections, Breguet cases have featured fluted sides and the new Marines do not depart from this signature element. However, the fluting now is bolder, reminiscent of maritime gears. While the case sides represent a refreshment of the previous style, the lugs take on an entirely new form.
In place of Breguet’s soldered slender lugs, the new Marine collection boasts a central lug, angled downward and a flange integrated into the case extending the full width of the strap. Visually, the strap, both rubber and alligator are options, now flows into the lug/flange assembly. The screws holding the strap in place take on a more aggressive size and shape with the external slot recalling the tip of navigation markers. The conception of the case fully anticipated the option of a metal bracelets, both in gold and in titanium, as the bracelet seamlessly attaches to the case.
Up:
Chronographe Marine 5527 en or rose
Right:
Chronographe Marine 5527 en or rose
Up:
Chronographe Marine 5527 en or rose
The decoration of movement components did not escape the attention of the designers as the maritime theme was re-enforced in finishing of the movement bridges and winding rotor. In place of the classic côte de Genève decoration of the surface of the bridges, Breguet created a new motif which calls to mind the wooden deck of a sailing vessel. The bridges are first burnished with wood to create a double-wide grained ribs. Thereafter, a guillocheur carves straight lines separating the double wide ribs into single individual grained “planks”. The winding rotors have been given the form of a ship’s steering wheel (those with a nautical background often refer to the wheel as the “rudder”) and are given a dark galvanic coloring.
The motif of the winding rotor is echoed in the double deployant buckle. Its rounded clasp repeats the rudder form.
Nautical Touches
Nautical Touches
Two refined nautical touches, the winding rotor carried out in the form of a ship’s wheel, echoed in the clasp of the deployant buckle.
