Breguet’s Year of the Rat watch is envisioned on the Reine de Naples watch, which comes with an exceptionally realistic cameo engraving of the Rat, perched on top of the planet Venus, in shades of white and brown set in a rose gold case.

The art of cameo is one that Breguet has utilised in its other timepieces, an ancient art form where the designs are raised in relief from hand-engraved conch shells. Once the design is cut out from the shell, the surface is smoothed and flattened to reveal the white surface where the main image will appear. The final shell thickness is no more than two millimetres, but the detailed grooves in the shell reveal deeper coloured shades, giving rise to a striking image of the little rodent in ivory over a darker brown background.

In a rose gold case with a bezel set with 40 diamonds, the crown at 4 o’clock is also decorated with a briolette-cut diamond as a cabochon. The self-winding manufacture calibre 537/3 is visible through the sapphire caseback, with a power reserve of 45 hours and an engine-turned platinum rotor. The special series is limited to eight timepieces numbered from 1/8 to 8/8.

Piaget Altiplano Zodiac Watch