The Sophisticated Platinum & Black Enamel Breguet Classique 5177 & Classique 7787

Breguet‘s Classique collection distils the essence of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s watchmaking spirit. With its pure, refined lines, the Classique is home to a wide variety of models sharing many of Breguet’s ‘unmistakable signs’. Breguet expands the collection with a pair of extremely elegant platinum models with inky black Grand Feu enamel dials. The candidates for this black-tie makeover are the Classique 5177 and the Classique 7787. Marking the first time platinum appears in the collection, the marriage of black enamel and gleaming platinum is a class act.

Not only did Abraham-Louis Breguet possess a prodigious mechanical mind, but he was also a remarkable designer. Shunning the elaborate decorative flourishes of the day, Breguet elevated legibility to new heights with his simple dials and guilloché engravings to highlight specific functions. His avant-garde (for the day) design language has been passed down through the centuries and informs many artistic details found in the Classique collection, like the elegantly fluted case flanks, the hollow “moon” tip hands and a host of other Breguet inventions covered in detail in our article/video of Unmistakable Signs.

Known as the “metal of kings”, platinum has been selected for the cases of both references. The automatic time-and-date Classique 5177, with a 38mm diameter and a svelte 8.8mm profile, is a classic dress watch and features the finely fluted flanks, slim bezel and slim straight welded lugs associated with this collection. The more complicated Classique 7787 Moonphase has a slightly wider 39mm diameter and a thickness of 10.3mm. Both references look stunning in the gleaming grey polished platinum cases.

Grand Feu enamel is not new to the Classique collection and has embellished models like the Classique Tourbillon Plat 5367PT, the Classique 7637 Répétion Minutes and the Classique 5177. A highly specialised craft, Grand Feu enamel requires the application of successive layers of enamel fired at temperatures of 800ºC. Black Grand Feu enamel is one of the challenging colours and requires immense talent and patience to produce the sleek, inky black uniform dials of the Classiques. The payoff is that the glossy surface will never fade over time. In contrast, both references feature signature Breguet Arabic numerals in powdered silver indicated by rhodium-plated “moon” tip Breguet hands.

The purity of the Classique 5177 matches A.L. Breguet’s design philosophy, and the tone-on-tone date window at 3 o’clock is discreet. Another delightful detail is the minutes track picked out with tiny star-shaped markers, lozenges at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock and a circle surmounting a triangle at the base of the remaining numbers. The caseback reveals the contemporary 777 Q automatic calibre operating at 4Hz with a 55-hour power and a flat silicon escape wheel and lever. As you would expect, the finishing is refined with Geneva stripes, circular graining and a starry mosaic guilloché pattern on the gold rotor.

The layout of the more complicated Classique 7787 Moonphase is inspired by the ‘balanced asymmetry’ of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s famous No.5 pocket watch of 1793. The phases of the moon are displayed in a semi-circle at noon with a  0-29 ½ track and a hammered white gold moon surrounded by rhodium-plated gold stars against a blue lacquered disc. There is an off-centred power reserve indicator shaped like a fan with an 0-38 arc in the lower half of the dial, and all the indications and inscriptions are powdered silver. Powered by the 591 DRL automatic calibre, this contemporary movement has a silicon escapement and hairspring, it beats at 4Hz and delivers a modest 38h power reserve. The gold rotor is decorated with a guilloché barleycorn pattern.

Both references come on black alligator leather straps, although the simpler 5177 has a platinum pin buckle, and the moon model has a triple-folding clasp. The price is CHF 36,800 for the Classique 5177PT and CHF 43,800 for the Classique 7787PT. More information at breguet.com.