Breguet and Race for Water : a year in review

Breguet joined Race for Water in March as the main sponsor of a five-year program, entitled “Odyssey 2017-2021” with a crucial mission for the oceans. This collaboration, announced by Breguet President Marc A. Hayek and Race for Water Founder and CEO Marco Simeoni, started within a long-term strategy. Breguet committed to support the Race for Water pioneering vessel sailing the seas around the world and to contribute to raising awareness among the decision-makers and general public, as well as educating the young generations.

Throughout 2018, the Race for Water vessel, powered by a mix of solar, hydrogen, and kite energies, has travelled with stopovers in several islands and coastal cities demonstrating that clean energy transition is a reality. Having left Panama in March 2018, the boat continued to Peru and Chile, and sailed in the Pacific Ocean with stopovers in the Robinson Crusoe Island, Rapa Nui (formerly known as the Easter Island), the French Polynesia, to arrive to the Samoan Islands in November and Tonga Islands in December. Since the beginning of the Odyssey, the vessel visited 9 countries, welcomed aboard over 3,200 children and met over 8,500 official guests. 

Plastic waste is the problem and the solution 

The Race for Water scientific research proved that “plastic islands” do not exist. Micro particles of plastic drift in the ocean; while only 1% of the plastic remains at the surface. The Foundation, created in 2010 by Swiss entrepreneur Marco Simeoni, is working towards offering solution for preserving the oceans from plastic pollution, a genuine environmental disaster on a planetary scale. 

“The solution is on land”, explains Marco Simeoni, Founder and CEO of the Race for Water Foundation. “Combined action is essential in preventing plastic waste from reaching the waterways and the oceans through the development of sustainable social models and business models that inspire its collection. Together with Montres Breguet, we are aiming at getting closer to making our dream of a better world come true.” 

“We have come up with a technology capable of transforming end-of-life plastics into energy, either gas or electricity”, Marco Simeoni says. “The sale of this energy will allow the community to pay the street collectors and encourage them to pick up end-of-life plastics”. 

The solution implementation is a long process, and a minimum of two years passes between the first contact and putting the machine into operation on site. “I would be very pleased if in 2020 we saw our projects transform into the “proof of concept”, demonstrating that the technological solution is viable and applicable,” adds Marco Simeoni. 

MARINE BY BREGUET, AN OUTSTANDING MARITIME COLLECTION 

Marine by Breguet ticks to the rhythm of the ocean swell and the light currents of the trade winds: a combination of a timeless esthetic and technical performance in Breguet’s time-honored tradition.

This collection is firmly rooted in the fundamentals of Breguet’s heritage. Back in the late eighteenth century, Abraham-Louis Breguet, the father of modern clock and watchmaking, determined the essentials in the art of fashioning timepieces: reliability and legibility. His many technical innovations, among them the tourbillon, were designed to optimize chronometry and its applications. Just as crucial, an uncluttered esthetic ensures the pieces are easy to read as well.

In 1815, King Louis XVIII of France recognized the exceptional qualities of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s marine chronometers, appointing him Chronometer-maker to the French royal navy. From that point on, the success of the royal expeditions was in part dependent on the reliability of his naval clocks – both a great honor and a heavy responsibility. Furthermore, in 1840, a Breguet instrument was the first timepiece to reach the Antarctic, with the Jules Dumont d’Urville expedition. The links between the House of Breguet and the French navy are as tangible as they have always been. 

Marine timepieces, a call to explore the great unknown 

The Marine Équation Marchante harks back to the day when navigators located their position by comparing the position of the stars with the time in their port of origin. A dedicated, easy- to-read hand displays the solar time. In a subtle and incredible feat of fine engraving, a historical sailing ship features across the components making up the back of this movement. Visible on the dial, the equation of time cam is mounted on a sapphire disk atop an extra- thin tourbillon. This grand complication watch is part of the Breguet tradition of outstanding watches. 

In 2018, Breguet enhanced the collection with three new models. Perfectly placed on its clean, simple three-hand display, the Marine 5517 features a date aperture. The Marine Chronographe 5527, on the other hand, measures short time intervals. Finally, the Marine 

Alarme Musicale 5547 features an alarm complication, and also displays the date and time for a second time zone. Each watch is available in three different case styles: titanium, rose gold and white gold. The titanium model features an elegantly understated sunburst slate- gray dial in gold. The rose gold and white gold cases feature a gold dial engine-turned with a brand-new wave design in blue or silver. 

A maritime esthetic

The sculpted horns accentuate the roundness of the case on the Marine models. The fluted case flanks evoke Breguet creations of times gone by. The artisan watchmaker’s skill heightens the dial’s legibility. The bright polished finish of the Breguet moon-tipped hands makes reading the time all but effortless. For nighttime use, the tip of each hand features a luminescent material, as do the five-minute markers above the Roman numerals. 

A selection of details pays homage to the nautical world. On the caliber bridges, the engine- turned côtes de Genève pattern calls to mind a ship’s deck boards. The tip of the second hand forms a “B”, which stands for the “Bravo” of maritime parlance, or for Breguet. A further detail is the rudder design featured on both the folding buckle and the rotor. 

With Marine from Breguet, the elegance of adventure
lends inspiration to the explorers of today.