“Wonderfully accurate,” says naval surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin of his beloved Breguet in Patrick O’Brian’s immortal Blue at the Mizzen. “Astonishingly resistant.” And it wasn’t just characters from Master and Commander novels who historically cherished their Breguet timepieces: perhaps the watch’s most famous devotee was L’Empereur, Napoleon Bonaparte himself.

Such a history can only be sustained through constant innovation, and this has been one of the hallmarks of Breguet’s unique and progressive history at the pinnacle of watchmaking. One such innovation was the Breguet overcoil spring, conceived in 1795 and still the reference mark in terms of the balance spring, that key component of movement precision and essential to the craft of the finest watch houses and watchmakers even today. A Breguet heir, Louis-Clément, sought to prevail over magnetic fields in 1830 by crafting balance springs in glass instead of metal. One of these springs was the central element in the beautiful precision of the historic Marie-Antoinette watch. In 2006, the first Breguet wristwatch with a silicon balance spring and escapement was introduced. It is in this magnificent tradition that the innovation to the Breguet Tradition Fusee Tourbillon has been created: this poem in platinum is built around the poised heart of the Breguet overcoil in silicon.

Its finely fluted caseback is matched with a sapphire caseback and round horns welded to the case. The hallmark open-tipped ‘Breguet hands’ rest gracefully on the dial of 18k silvered gold, and each one is individually numbered and signed Breguet. For a man in touch with history, poised on the brink of the future, the Breguet Tradition becomes not only a companion, but also a guide.

Subscribe to Verve Magazine or buy the Verve issue on stands now!