Basel 2008: Breguet Grand Complication Ref. 1160 Pocket Watch Pays Tribute To Legendary 'Marie Antoinette" Watch

Breguet has unveiled a remarkable Grande Complication pocket watch, which has been the product of intensive historical study and over three years of technical development.  This work of art features a 46mm 18K yellow gold case housing a movement comprised of over 800 hand-finished pieces.  Functions include minute repeater, equation of time, a perpetual calendar, power reserve, jumping hours, and a thermometer.

The Breguet Grand Complication Ref. 1160 watch is a faithful replica of the legendary 'Marie Antoinette' watch, which was commissioned from Abraham-Louis Breguet for Queen Marie Antoinette of France, by a secret admirer of the Queen.  The watch, completed four years after Breguet's death, was at the time the most complicated timepiece in existence.  Once owned by famed Breguet collector Sir David Salomons the 'Marie Antoinette' was later gifted to the L.A. Mayer Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem.  It was stolen from this museum in 1982 during a famous burglary.  The whereabouts of the historical timepiece were a mystery until 2007, when it suddenly resurfaced.    

The Breguet Ref. 1160 Grande Complication Pocket Watch will be presented in an magnificent box composed of 3,500 pieces.  The exterior faithfully duplicates the parquetry work of the floor inside the Petit Trianon; the wood selected to make the box is obtained from Marie Antoinette's favorite oak tree in Versailles.  Within this outer box nestles an inner box, whose lid depicts the hand of the queen, bearing a rose.  Comprised of over 1,000 pieces of marquetry, it is based upon a famous oil painting of the ill-fated monarch.