Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi

Quick specs Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi
Price: 18-carat red gold: $ 75,100 | approx. € 63.600 | approx. £ 56,900 / Platinum: $ 89,700 | approx. € 76.000 | approx. £ 67,900
Size: 43 mm
Reference: 5717BR/US/9ZU (18-carat red gold) / 5717PT/US/9ZU (platinum)

Complications in watchmaking are more often than not, miniscule marvels. But useful nowadays? Rarely. The Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi does have something handy in the form of an easy to operate time switching mechanism.

The Breguet can switch from one programmed time zone to the other, together with its corresponding city, date and day/night indicators. You can do this simply by pushing a button how often you like, because it does impact its rate.

This function lets the wearer preselect, from among the cities listed for the 24 time zones, two cities for which one wishes to display local time. One can then change from one to the other by pressing on the combined crown/push piece at 8 o’clock, which triggers an instant jump.

The Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi is available as a European, Asian or American version

For example, assume it is 4 pm in Paris on the 25th of the month. Rotating the combined crown/push piece reveals ‘Paris’ in the window at 6 o’clock, then the crown at 3 o’clock is used to set the hands to 4 o’clock and the date to 25, taking care that the day/night indicator shows the sun. For quick display of the local time in Sydney, the crown/push piece is first rotated to bring up the name of the Australian city in the window at 6 o’clock; the watch then automatically sets itself to Sydney time.

Also worth a look is the large, lacquered globe on the 18-carat gold dial, available in three versions, depending on where you live. There is an European, Asian and American dial.

All this is housed in a 43-millimeter platinum or 18-carat red gold fluted case. The Breguet Classique 5717 Hora Mundi comes on either a black (platinum) or brown (red gold) alligator leather strap.