Introducing: Breguet Quietly Launches The Impressive Ref. 7365 Minute Repeater And Classique Grande Sonnerie Métiers d’Art 1905 Pocket Watch

The caliber here is fantastic, the new Caliber 508GS. It starts with plates and bridges in rhodium-plated brass, with a rhodium-plated 18k Breguet gold striking barrel bridge, hand-guilloché with the “Petit Trianon” motif, and an identification plate in 18k Breguet gold. The watch winds in two directions: one for the timing caliber, the other for the grande et petite sonnerie, while a button engages time-setting. The watch has three modes: grande (chimes the hours and quarters), petite (chimes only the hours), and silent. The regulator is a one-minute tourbillon running at 2.5Hz, with a variable-inertia balance and a Breguet terminal curve hairspring in blued steel, and a Swiss lever escapement with 15 teeth.

The kicker here is the timing regulator for the chimes. Here, Breguet has used a magnetic regulator for the tempo of the sonnerie functions, ensuring consistency of timing. Rotating arms sit between networks of magnets on each side of the regulator. As the arms rotate, they create current loops, like the Foucault currents discovered in 1851. The current opposes the magnetic field of the network of magnets, creating an electromagnetic brake that balances the system at a set speed.