The Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555

Breguet is on quite a streak in its 250th year of existence. The fifth release to celebrate the watchmaker is the Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555. This limited edition of 50 pieces debuts in an 18K Breguet Gold case and shows an entirely new two-layer dial. Its two superimposed layers — one guilloché, the other sapphire — showcase exceptional craftsmanship and inspiration from NASA’s Black Marble, a nocturnal portrait of Earth seen from space. At the same time, the watch is a tribute to the brand’s founder, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), who created marine chronometers in his time.

The new Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555 is many things. It’s the fifth release in a series of celebratory watches that started with the Classique Souscription 2025, followed by the Tradition Seconde Rétrograde 7035, two Type XX Chronographe 2075 iterations, and the Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255. The Marine Hora Mundi 5555 is also a modern travel watch of the highest level in terms of movement technology and artisanal craftsmanship. At the same time, it tells the story of the brand’s founder, who King Louis XVIII appointed as the chronometer maker to the French Royal Navy in 1815. The new travel watch in the Marine collection has a lot going on.

Introducing the Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555: Showing the world by night as seen from space

We’ll discuss the case and what’s inside it later, but we need to start with the highlight of the newest version of the Marine Hora Mundi — the dial. It is as fascinating as it is alluring and intricate, and it consists of two superimposed levels. At its foundation lies a gold dial adorned with a gradient that shifts from sky blue to deep navy. This base dial also shows meticulous hand guilloché. Though the surface is perfectly flat, the guilloché lines create the trompe-l’œil of a spherical Earth, tracing meridians and parallels converging toward the four cardinal points.

Decorated on both sides

With the watch on your wrist, you can look at the different indications as if you were in the thermosphere, gazing down from space. To achieve this illusion, Breguet overlays the guilloché dial with a translucent sapphire crystal, transforming it into a canvas that unites and showcases multiple forms of artisanal craftsmanship.

The sapphire dial is painted by hand in three stages and on both sides. The process begins with the miniature enameling of the continents. This happens on the reverse of the crystal — an exacting challenge since the artisans must paint a mirror image so that the design appears correctly when the crystal is right side up. Once complete, the enamel is fired at extremely high temperatures to ensure permanence. In the following stage, artisans paint a veil of clouds across the front of the sapphire layer in enamel. Fired using the Grand Feu technique, these clouds introduce motion and vitality to the composition. Unlike the fixed contours of the continents, the clouds are left to the creative interpretation of each artisan. As a result, every Marine Hora Mundi 5555 becomes a one-of-a-kind watch.

NASA’s Black Marble, a nocturnal vision of Earth, inspired the overall dial design. The Marine Hora Mundi 5555 looks mysterious and somewhat toned down for a dual-time watch by opting for a night view. Cities worldwide light up as tiny dots made of patent-pending phosphorescent enamel. By the way, Breguet allows each of the 50 owners to personalize the cities representing the 24 time zones.

A case in blondish 18K Breguet Gold

The newest version of the Hora Mundi has a generous 43.9mm case with a 13.8mm thickness and a 47.2mm lug-to-lug length. It’s made from 18K Breguet Gold, a proprietary alloy of 75% gold and a blend of silver, copper, and palladium. While the exact ratios remain secret, copper imparts a warm, subtly reddish hue, and palladium enhances stability, protecting the metal from fading and discoloration. You could describe the precious alloy as having a blond tone. Since this is a watch in the Marine collection, initially conceived as a homage to marine chronometer maker Abraham-Louis Breguet, the watch is water resistant to 100 meters. The case shows all the features of the Marine, including a fluted middle case and distinct lugs.

A golden sun and a hammered moon

Inside the Marine Hora Mundi 5555 beats a movement already in service. The watch, with central hours, minutes, and seconds plus another time zone, is powered by the automatic in-house caliber 77F1. This 36 × 6.13mm movement features a 4Hz frequency, a 55-hour power reserve, and a silicon escapement. It also has dual pre-set time zones with instant jumping and a synchronized date, day/night, and city display. The Breguet Gold day/night indicator representing a sun shows a sunburst finish, and the hand-hammered half-moon has a rhodium-plated finish.

Would you like to know how to operate the watch? You begin by selecting your home city with the crown at 7 o’clock. Then, use the crown at 3 o’clock to set the time, date, and day/night indicator. Next, return to the crown at 7 o’clock to choose another city. As you turn the crown, the watch automatically adjusts the time, date, and day/night display to correspond with the selected location. Once that’s done, you can also push in the 7 o’clock crown to show the time back home on demand.

The Marine Hora Mundi 5555 comes on a navy-blue alligator strap with large scales on top. While the lining is a matching color, here, the alligator leather has (more comfortable) small scales. This strap also comes equipped with an 18K Breguet Gold three-blade folding clasp. Also, if you want to wear the watch in its historical habitat, you can swap the alligator strap out for the extra rubber strap inside the individually numbered red leather box.

The Breguet Marine Hora Mundi 5555 in 18K Breguet Gold is a limited edition of 50 pieces and costs CHF 88,000 including taxes.

Any thoughts? What do you think of Breguet’s string of anniversary novelties so far? Please let me know in the comments section.

Watch specifications