Watch-Replica.net News Blog

The world known watch brand Breguet has unveiled the outstanding Grande Complication watch that became the result of thorough historical study and more than 3 years of technical development. This fantastic masterpiece has a 46 mm 18 K yellow gold case that houses a movement that consists of more than 800 hand-finished pieces. The watch includes a fantastic variety of complications, such as minute repeater, equation of time, perpetual calendar, thermometer, power reserve and others.
The Breguet Grand Complication Ref. 1160 watch, that was presented at Basel 2008 is a perfect duplicate of the legendary “Marie Antoinette” watch. Marie Antoinette watch was commissioned from Abraham-Louis Breguet for Queen Marie Antoinette of France. The legendary timepiece was commissioned in 1783 by Count Axel de Ferson, an officer in the Queen’s high guard and an admirer of Marie Antoinette. The queen’s admirer did not care about time and price. Abraham-Louis Breguet was asked to “make the most spectacular watch the world has ever seen”. Count Axel de Ferson was aware about the queen’s affection for jewelry and he was sure such a gift would be appreciated greatly by the queen.
Development of the watch took very much time. It was completed only 4 year after Breguet died and some time after Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded at the guillotine for treason. Marie Antoinette pocket watch became the most complicated watch of that time, since it included every known complication. The watch had an automatic mechanical movement with 48 hour power reserve. The watch featured the following complications: on demand minute repeater chiming on the hour, quarter hour, an equation of time indicator, full perpetual calendar, jumping hour display, bimetallic mechanical thermometer, a bevy of internal stability and accuracy mechanisms.The timepiece had belonged to many owners. It was owned by Breguet collector Sir David Salmons, then it was gifted to the L.A Mayer Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem. In 1982 the watch was stolen from the museum. No one knows the fate of the watch until 2007 when the legendary timepiece suddenly resurfaced.
In 2005 Breguet decided to reconstruct the famous Marie Antoinette watch and the work began. The legend was recreated with help of only diagrams, pictures and written descriptions of the original Marie Antoinette watch. Due to special metals and alloys even the same colors were reproduced. Thus public saw Breguet Ref. 1160 Grande Complication Pocket Watch -a perfect replica of the legendary Marie Antoinette pocket watch.
The Breguet Ref. 1160 Grande Complication Pocket Watch was presented in a magnificent box that was composed out of 3,500 pieces. The exterior of the box looks very beautiful, it duplicates the parquetry work of the floor inside the Petit Trianon. The box is made out of oak tree in Versailles – the favorite tree of Marie Antoinette. The outer box nestles an inner box. The lid of the inner box depicts hand of Marie Antoinette bearing a rose. The Breguet Grand Complication Ref. 1160 now is justly considered to be a testament to a legend.