BREGUET POCKET WATCH WITH HALF-QUARTER REPEATER
BREGUET POCKET WATCH WITH HALF-QUARTER REPEATER
«3729: Repeating 23-lines watch, gold hunting case and gold cuvette by Tavernier (casemaker), silver guilloché dial with small second, lever escapement.
Piece started in December 1820 and completed in February 1824.
Sold on February 18, 1824 to Mr. Neidhart for the price of 3600 Francs1.
Piece entirely refurbished in 1838 for the same owner, Mr. Neidhart.»
Thus, two representatives of the famous family were involved in the creation of this watch: it was started by Abraham-Louis Breguet, and finished by his son, Antoine-Louis Breguet.
The watch began its life in 1820 when master Demarne sold an ébauche (movement blank) to Breguet for 45 Swiss francs. The creation of the watch took almost four years, until January 31, 1824, when the finishing touches were applied. Such a long production time was not unusual at the time: Breguet employed many workers whose work had to be synchronized and who worked on many watches at once. Moreover, the watch was made towards the end of his life. He died at the final stage of production, during finishing.
The watch case must have been impressive, judging by the 3,600 francs price tag. By comparison, a Breguet with the similar serial number No. 3725, also with repeater, sold for just 1,504 francs, but in a plain gold case.
For reference:
in the 1820s, the salary of a silk worker in Lyon was 2 francs per day. That is, 3,600 francs is his salary for 5 years! Dinner in Boulogne “... with a wide variety of dishes, a dessert of nuts and fruits and a bottle of red wine” cost 3 francs at that time. The cost of an eternal grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery was 250 francs per meter. For 3,600 francs you could buy 11 horses or 27 cows. To earn a similar amount, it would have taken an experienced trader about 2 years.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MOVEMENT
The movement is a mechanical half-quarter repeater watch with a single hammer and key winding. The repeater was launched using a special rotary rod passing through the neck of the pendant. Straight lever escapement, pallet fork with counterweights. Bimetallic compensation balance with flat spiral. Shock absorbing device for balance. The gold-plated movement, 52 mm in diameter and 6.8 mm thick, was mounted in a gold case, which was probably melted down as scrap gold. The serial number of the movement is stamped on the bottom plate under the dial – 3729. It is worth noting the presence of a device for limiting the tension force of the mainspring, quite innovative for that time – «Breguet stopwork» (with two toothed wheels, one of 10 teeth fixed to the barrel-arbor, and another of 8 teeth fixed to the barrel itself. The projections on the two wheels c meet after 4 turns thus limiting the extent to which the mainspring is wound).
Guilloche silver dial with black Roman numerals and signature «BREGUET» at 6 o'clock. Диск малой секундной стрелки имеет необычное смещение на «5 часов» и занижен относительно уровня основного. On the reverse side of the dial is stamped the number 3729, which matches the serial number of the movement, and the letters «B» and «T». «B» stands for «Breguet» and is found on all such ut, apparently, it was not cheap, and in 1839 he decided to turn to a local watchmaker.dials, «T» stands for Tavernier, the name of the master who made the dial. Also, under the marking for the opening of the second hand, «Secondes» is scratched, and near the edge of the dial there is a service inscription of the watchmaker who repaired the watch and from which we can find out the date of completion of the repair: «1839 года мая 20» (May 20, 1839, it was Monday).
As you know, Breguet accepted his watches for repairs, and sometimes bought them back for further resale. This watch must have caused Neidgart some problems because, according to the manufacture's archives, it was returned to Breguet for repairs at least three times (the last time in 1838).
The hour and minute rings are satin-finished using the «Satiné circulaire» technique. (fr. – circular satin), the boundaries of the hour, minute ring and small seconds disc are made using the «Sauté piqué» technique (fr. – jumping notches) or «Piqué relève» (fr. – high notches), The small seconds disc is guilloched using the «Vieux Panier» technique (fr. – old basket), and the main field of the dial is made in the «Clous de Paris» technique (fr. – nails of Paris).
1 – Satiné circulaire, 2 – Sauté piqué or Piqué relève, 3 – Vieux Panier, 4 – Clous de Paris
The sober, blued steel hands with offset apple-shaped tips stand out from the dial, a feature that has graced Breguet watches for over two centuries. This unusual design, developed in 1783, quickly became widely known, and the term «Breguet hands» or «Breguet apples» quickly entered the lexicon of watchmakers. The small seconds dial features an elegant blued seconds hand..
DEFINITION OF FIRST OWNER
Taking into account the presence of an inscription on the dial in Russian (the reverse side, the watchmaker's inscription), as well as information from the official response of the Breguet Museum, it can be said with a high degree of probability that the buyer of this watch was one of the representatives of the famous Neidhardt2 family in Russia.
Considering the date of sale of the watch, the buyer could have been one of the sons of Ivan Lavrentievich Neidhardt, son of Lavrenty Neidhardt: either Pavel Ivanovich Neidhardt (1779-1850), general, participant in the Napoleonic wars, later Odessa mayor, senator, active privy councilor, or Alexander Ivanovich Neidhardt (1784-1845), infantry general, adjutant general, commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps (his granddaughter, Olga Borisovna Neidhardt, was the wife of Russian Prime Minister P. A. Stolypin).
Neidhar(d)t – Russian noble family of Austrian origin. Sometimes the surname is spelled Neidhardt or Neihardt. Nicholas Neidhardt went to Russia at the end of the 17th century, where he entered military service. In 1703-1713 he served in the St. Petersburg residential regiment, first as a lieutenant colonel and then as a colonel. He had a brother Lorenz (Lavrenty), who is known as a military engineer and geologist. In 1699, he looked for copper ores in the Kazan province (Kungur), and in 1708 he built an earthen fortress in Kazan. Both of them were considered «foreigners» and were Lutherans.
Pavel Ivanovich Neidhardt Alexander Ivanovich Neidhardt
1779-1850 1784-1845
Neidgart must have had a strong predilection for exceptional cases. On January 20th of that year, he purchased an impressive platinum-cased Breguet Souscription watch from Breguet – one of only five platinum-cased Souscription watches ever made by Breguet!
Interestingly, some time after the acquisition, Neidgart once again visited Breguet's workshops and ordered the master Garnier a special case-box for this watch with space for a spare glass and a gold chain. The work was completed in April 1824, and after that the complete set was handed over to the owner.
CONFIRMATION OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE MOVEMENT
To determine and prove the authenticity of the movement, we will use several publications that are generally recognized fundamental works on the history of watchmaking in general and the Breguet heritage in particular: «La Montre Français», Adolphe Chapiro; «Breguet. Meisterwerke klassischer Uhrmacherkunst», O. Patrizzi, M. Patrizzi, J.-C. Sabrier, S. Bull; «The Art of Breguet», George Daniels; «The Repeater», Richard Watkins.
1) DIAL 
One of the features of a «Breguet watch» is the so-called «secret signature» – the inscription Breguet, written in italics. It was engraved using a specially designed pantograph on the face of the dial, often at 12 o'clock, and was only visible from a certain angle in oblique light. The reason for its appearance was the success that accompanied Breguet watches and made them a tempting target for counterfeiters. In 1795, Breguet came up with a countermeasure: a secret signature, which is still present on most Breguet dials and is a sign of authenticity.
However, this sign is not an absolute argument, since such an inscription is not found on all Breguet products.
The offset position of the small seconds hand is also characteristic of Breguet repeaters. It could be located at 2, 4, 5, 6 or 8 o'clock.
Options for the placement of the small seconds hand in Breguet watches
The dial is guilloche. Breguet began using guilloche around 1786. Back then it was a completely new design style. This finishing technique is considered one of the hallmarks of the great master's watches: Breguet's famous hand-guilloché dials are unmistakable. Their elegance and grace reflect the exceptional quality and precision of their intricate movements.
Breguet guilloche dials can rightfully be called true works of art. Initially, the smooth disk is processed with a burin to mark different zones of the dial. The piece is then guilloched to give its surface a matte texture and to mark the boundaries of the different zones of the dial. Guilloche patterns not only improve readability, but also give each dial a distinct and unique personality. This operation is carried out manually from start to finish.
A dial similar to the one shown was used in watch No. 4351. The only difference is in the location of the screw that secures the dial to the movement. By the way, this method of fastening the dial is also characteristic of Breguet.
а) watch No. 4351
б) presented movement No. 3729
2) BALANCE
The characteristic recognizable shape of the complex rim of a split bimetallic compensation balance with steel and gold adjusting screws. The design of the balance in the presented watches is very reminiscent of the balances in the so-called Breguet's «resonance watches», made in the 1810s. In the presented movement, the outer rim of the balance wheel is slightly modified, but one cannot help but notice that in many respects they are identical. Probably, this balance is the product of one of the experiments of Abraham-Louis Breguet, who, as you know, sought to introduce differences in the design of all his movements, making them different from each other.
а) fragment of the Breguet's resonance watch movement No. 2667, sold in August 1814
б) balance of the presented movement No. 3729
Also common for Breguet was the use of a double roller with a ruby roller-pin and a flat balance spring made of blued steel.
3) BALANCE SHOCK ABSORBING DEVICE
One of Breguet's «tricks» was the shock-absorbing device of the balance axis, the prototype of a modern shockproof device, which is a spring-loaded plate placed on the balance bridge and holding the jewels.
а) balance bridge of the presented movement No. 3729
б), в), г) – examples of Breguet watches balance bridges
4) REPEATER MECHANISM
Breguet produced a significant number of repeater watches, but information about them is very limited. David Salomons' book «BREGUET. (1747-1823)» contains several photos, but they are small, black and white and of poor quality. Many of the photos in George Daniels's «The Art of Breguet» are, with a few exceptions, the same or worse, and cannot be satisfactorily interpreted. And Emmanuel Breguet’s book «Breguet, Watchmakers since 1775» does not have photos of repeater movements at all. The only book with good and useful photos is the Antiquorum auction catalog «The Art of Breguet», which contains more than 20 illustrations of repeater movements.
The design features of the repeater mechanism clearly indicate the authorship of Abraham-Louis Breguet. This design is a reworking of Breguet's version of the English Stogden repeater design of the 1720s. Stogden's influence is obvious. Of the 20 illustrated repeater mechanisms in the Antiquorum catalog «The Art of Breguet», 13 are based on Stogden's design. Many of the repeaters are idiosyncratic, demonstrating Breguet's desire to make each watch unique and to demonstrate his capabilities in its construction.
It is very likely that Breguet was introduced to Stogden's design by John Arnold or his son John Roger Arnold, as Arnold made several Stogden repeaters that predated Breguet's. Breguet then created his own specific and masterful adaptation.
Below is a comparison of the repeater mechanism of the presented movement No. 3729 with illustrations posted in the books of Richard Watkins and Adolphe Chapiro.
а) Breguet half-quarter repeater mechanism with single hammer at rest (Figure 95, page 52 – «The Repeater», Richard Watkins)
б) presented movement No. 3729
в) diagram of the Breguet half-quarter repeater mechanism with single hammer («La Montre Francais», Adolphe Chapiro)
The following illustration shows a comparison of the hour-snail, star-wheel and half-quarter snail, the strike-rack and the racks of the presented movement with the illustration in the book by Adolfe Chapiro.
Drawing of the Breguet half-quarter repeater mechanism («La Montre Francais», Adolphe Chapiro)
and pieces of the presented movement No. 3729
A similar repeater mechanism design was used in the Breguet half-quarter repeaters No. 1536 and
No. 2058.
а) half-quarter repeater mechanism of Breguet watch No. 1536
б) half-quarter repeater mechanism of the presented Breguet watch No. 3729
в) half-quarter repeater mechanism of Breguet watch No. 2058
5) LEVER
The design features of the lever correspond to the examples given in the book by Adolfe Chapiro dating back to 1814 and 1824.
The characteristic shape of the lever-fork and the small screwed arrow used as a guard-pin are clearly defined. The shape of the legs of the tail part of the lever is also recognizable. This form of lever was called «Cavalier» (fr. – cavalryman, horseman, rider).
а) illustration of one of the escapement that Breguet used in his watches («The Art of Breguet», George Daniels, page 311). The caption under the picture reads: «Late jeweled lever escapement for watches under 45 mm diameter».
б) photoh of the wheel train of one of the Breguet movement («La Montre Francais», Adolphe Chapiro)
в) lever and its tail part of the presented movement No. 3729
Thus, it can be summarized that each Breguet watch is unique, and the differences are arbitrary and do not constitute «improvements». Breguet probably made each watch unique to make it easier to sell because very rich people would prefer to own a watch that no one else had. We don't know if this applies to Breguet repeaters because the movement is hidden under the dial and cannot be displayed, so perhaps his various designs of repeater mechanisms are the result of experimentation rather than advertising.
The presented movement is no exception and, being enclosed in a new gold case, will take on a new life and become a unique item almost 200 years old!
A fairly limited number of people on planet Earth can boast of having such a watch, which is also completely suitable for use as a device for measuring time!
In addition, this is a profitable investment: over the years, such watches will only become more expensive…
BREGUET REPEATERS AT AUCTIONS
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1829
Movement number: 4029
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 57.1mm
Date of sale: 06.11.2022
Antiquorum, Geneva
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1820
Movement number: 3789
Case: 20K yellow gold
Diameter: 36.0 mm
Date of sale: 14.12.2021
CHRISTIE’S
Type: half-quarter repeater
Year: around 1806
Movement number: 2276
Case: 20K yellow gold
Diameter: 44.0mm
Date of sale: 14.12.2021
CHRISTIE’S
According to the archives, this quarter repeater watch was sold on October 8, 1816 to Lord Lauderdale for 2,200 francs. James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale (1759-1839), was one of Breguet's most devoted customers in England, purchasing seven watches between 1804 and 1807 alone.
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1807
Movement number: 1580
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 55.0 mm
Date of sale: 18.05.2021
CHRISTIE’S
Watch of Alexandre Berthier, 1st Prince of Wagram, Sovereign Prince of Neuchâtel, Marshal of the Empire, Minister of War andChief of Staff of Napoleon.
Type: half-quarter repeater
Year: around 1812
Movement number: 2261
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 51.0mm
Date of sale: 25.04.2021
Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1820
Movement number: 1764
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 53.3mm
Date of sale: 10.05.2020
Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1822
Movement number: 3663
Case: 20k yellow gold
Diameter: 38.2mm
Date of sale: 16.07.2019
Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Monaco
This watch was sold on February 5, 1819 to Baron von Vietinghoff-father for 3,000 francs. Members of the Vietinghoff family served in the governments and armed forces of the Russian Tsars, the German Emperors, the Kings of Sweden, Denmark, Poland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Württemberg, Saxony and Prussia. This watch was probably bought by Christoph Burhard Scheel
(1767-1829), Baron von Vietinghoff, a Latvian naturalist, chamberlain at the Russian court and secret adviser to the Tsar, who came to Paris for six months
in 1819.
Type: half-quarter repeater
Year: around 1819
Movement number: 3190
Case: 20k yellow gold
Diameter: 40.6mm
Date of sale: 28.04.2019
Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong
This watch was sold on July 28, 1824 to Monsieur Auguste Méville
for 1,940 francs.
Type: half quarter repeater
Year: around 1820
Movement number: 3499
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 55.0 mm
Date of sale: 15.05.2017
CHRISTIE’S
This watch was sold on 15 November 1819 to John Broadhurst (1778-1861), Member of Parliament of Angleterre for 4,000 francs.
Type: quarter repeater
Year: around 1819
Movement number: 3360
Case: 18K yellow gold
Diameter: 55.0 mm
Date of sale: 15.05.2017
CHRISTIE’S
This Breguet pocket watch, number 3795, was sold to Prince Beloselsky on January 11, 1823 for 2,200 Swiss francs. The prince was a major general in the retinue of the Russian emperor and the head of the Police Department of the Nikolaev Railway.
Type: half quarter repeater
Year: around 1820
Movement number: 3795
Case: 20K rose gold
Diameter: 52.5mm
Date of sale: 29.11.2016
The Hong Kong Watch Auction
HISTORY OF BREGUET
The history of the Breguet brand goes back four centuries and is so rich in inventions and innovations that it represents an integral part of the entire history of watchmaking.
The brand takes its name from its founder Abraham-Louis Breguet, who was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on January 10, 1747.
His ancestors were French and, since they were Protestants, moved to Switzerland in 1685. In fact, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which in 1598 put an end to the religious wars that engulfed France in the second half of the 16th century), severe persecution of Protestants occurred again in France. Despite the travel ban, some 400,000 Protestants, including the Breguet family, are fleeing France at the risk of their lives.
When he was only eleven, his father Jonas-Louis died. Soon after, his mother Suzanne-Marguerite Bollein remarried her husband's cousin, Joseph Tattet, who came from a family of watchmakers. In 1762, Tatte took Breguet with him to Paris, where by that time everything had calmed down a little. There, Abraham-Louis became an apprentice to a watchmaker from Versailles, whose name is still unknown.
After completing his apprenticeship, he worked for two of the most famous watchmakers of his time, Ferdinand Berthoud (1727-1807) and Jean-Antoine Lépine (1720-1814).
At the same time, realizing that mathematics was necessary for success in his work, he continued to improve his education by attending evening classes in this subject at the Collège Mazarin under Abbé Marie. Impressed by his talent and intelligence, Marie was instrumental in introducing Breguet to the French court and the aristocracy close to him, who later became Breguet's clientele.
Despite the difficult times due to the loss of his mother, stepfather and mentor Marie in a very short time, Breguet was able to take care of his younger sister and finally, in 1775, open his own business at No. 39, Quai de l'Horloge, in Ile-Horloge. on Île de la Cité, right on the banks of the Seine River near Notre Dame. He was only 28 years old.
On the left is the Breguet workshop on the Quai de l'Horloge in Paris, engraving, late 18th century. In the center and on the right – Quai de l'Horloge today
That same year he married Cécile Marie-Louise L'Huillier, the daughter of a prominent Parisian bourgeois family. Most likely, part of the capital needed to start the business came from her dowry.
Thanks to the introduction of Abbot Marie, Breguet quickly began to receive his first orders from the aristocracy. In particular, a self-winding watch was made for the Duke of Orleans in 1780 and another for Marie Antoinette in 1782.
His self-winding watches, or «perpetual watches», brought him considerable fame both at the court of Versailles and throughout Europe. Although he was not the first to produce a self-winding watch, most experts agree that he created the first watch of its kind that was truly reliable and efficient.
Two examples of Breguet Perpetuelle watches: an oscillating weight, spring-loaded in such a way that after each movement it returned to its original position, pushing up the two guides of the barrels, stopping when the springs were fully wound
Breguet watches were an immediate success not only for the quality of their movements, but also for their design. Suffice it to recall the watch hands that he developed in 1783. Made from gold or blued steel, they had eccentrically cut holes that gave the watch an irresistible elegance. They were a great success, as evidenced by the fact that the term «Breguet hands» soon entered the vocabulary of watchmakers.
For his dials, he used white enamel plates with typical Arabic numerals slanted slightly to the right, or guilloche decorations, that is, receptive patterns engraved on the dial using a manual lathe. The guilloche pattern is not just a decorative element, but has the advantage of suppressing the reflection of light on the metal plates of the dial.
Guilloche dial of a Breguet pocket watch, 1786 (an identical dial is installed on the presented movement)
In 1783, Breguet, through a member of Marie-Antoinette's guard, received an order for a special watch that was to be created as a gift to Queen Marie-Antoinette, one of his most enthusiastic admirers of his watches. The watch had to include all the complications and functions known at the time. There were no time or money restrictions on the order. It was completed in 1827, 44 years after the order and 34 years after the death of the Queen (she was executed by guillotine on the Place de la Revolution on October 16, 1793), but as a result many experts consider this watch to be the most important ever created by technological, aesthetic and historical reasons. Unfortunately, Abraham-Louis Breguet died in 1823, so the masterpiece was completed by his son Antoine-Louis. The Breguet No. 160 «Marie-Antoinette» was an exceptional watch in every sense. «The Mona Lisa of the watch world», «The Holy Grail of watchmaking» – these are just some of the epithets that enthusiastic descendants have bestowed on this work of watchmaking art.
Two Marie-Antoinettes
The Breguet pocket watch No. 160 had a diameter of 63 mm and included a perpetual calendar with day, date and month, equation of time, repeater of minute, quarter and hour, independent seconds, jumping hour and thermometer. It was a «perpetual model», that is, a self-winding movement with an all-platinum rotor.
Total factory costs, as stated in the archives, reached the impressive sum of 17,070 francs, far more than any other Breguet watch produced at the time. For comparison, another early perpetual calendar pocket watch, the famous No. 92 created for the Duke de Preslin, sold for 4,800 francs.
The self-winding watch «Marie Antoinette» features a minute repeater that chimes on command the hours, quarters and minutes, as well as a full perpetual calendar displaying the date, day of the week and month at two, six and eight o'clock respectively. At ten o'clock the equation of time display shows the difference between civil and solar time. At the center, a jumping hour and minute hand accompany a large independent seconds hand, the forerunner of the chronograph hand, and a small seconds subdial is located at 6 o'clock. Nearby are a 48-hour power reserve indicator and a bimetallic thermometer.
Other remarkable inventions of these years are the «gong spring» (1783), used to strike a clock instead of a bell, and the «parachute» (1790), a shock protection system or «elastic suspension» (as Breguet himself sometimes called it) that made the watch less fragile and more resistant to mechanical stress.
Gong spring in a minute repeater watch on the left.
On the right is a parachute-type shockproof system.
Breguet worked independently until 1787, when he became a partner with Xavier Gide, a watch dealer, bringing more capital into the business.
Although this partnership was not particularly successful and was dissolved in 1791, it was very important in the history of Breguet, as through it the company began to keep archival records of sales and factory costs, providing us with invaluable information.
For example, regarding the self-winding watches mentioned above, we know from records that Breguet sold sixty «perpetual watches» between 1787 and 1823. And although there are no records for the period from 1780 to 1787, let's assume that another twenty or thirty pieces were produced during this time period.
But these were dangerous times, with the storm of the French Revolution fast approaching, especially for a man considered too close to the aristocracy and the royal court.
Fortunately, Breguet became a close friend of the revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat, whose sister Albertine made the hands for watchmaker. According to legend, Breguet saved Marat from an angry crowd that had gathered at the house of a mutual friend: he came up with the idea of dressing his friend as an old woman, and thus they were able to successfully escape.
When Marat discovered that Breguet was sentenced to be guillotined, he issued a pass that allowed Abraham-Louis to leave Paris for Geneva in 1793. From there he moved to Le Locle, where he opened a small workshop with a handful of employees. Thus, he was able to continue working for the royal families of Russia and England, in particular for King George III.
In 1795, the political situation in France stabilized and Breguet returned to Paris, where he found his factory in ruins. Friends, mainly the Choiseul-Praslin family, helped him rebuild his business, which he reopened on the Quai d'Horloge.
The army and navy were in dire need of reliable watches, so Breguet was glad to return. He was even compensated for losses incurred during the Terror, and his employees were exempted from military service in order to speed up the restoration of his factory.
Although Breguet's activities suffered greatly during the years of exile, he used this time to develop many exceptional ideas and inventions that were implemented in the following years, allowing him to quickly achieve great success.
Breguet's superiority lay not only in technique and style. He was also an excellent marketer. Example: in 1797, the watchmaker created one of the most famous examples of single-hand pocket watches «Souscription» (fr. – subscription).
Breguet Souscription № 3424, circa 1797
Launched through an advertising brochure and equipped with a very simple movement based on a large central barrel, they were sold by subscription (hence the name) with a quarter of the price paid up front when the order was placed. The «Souscription» was a great success and many models were released with different dials, in gold or silver cases.
Breguet Souscription No. 542, 62 mm, silver case with gold inserts, enamel dial, sold in 1800.
Breguet Souscription No. 1391, diameter 57 mm, gold case, gold guilloche dial, sold in 1805.
In the late 1790s, Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the «montre à tact» or «tact watch». In addition to allowing the wearer to tell the time in the traditional way by opening the watch case and looking at the inner dial, the watch also allowed him to tell the time in the dark by turning the hand or arrow on the outside of the case clockwise until it felt like it had stopped at the hour shown watch. Thanks to the small protrusions around the case used as hour markers, one could feel where the hour hand/arrow was and roughly determine the correct time.
Pocket watch «médaillon montre à tact» in a rose gold case, with enamels and diamonds, with a cylinder escapement, signed Breguet, No. 608, sold to Monsieur Bastreche
in 1800 for 3,000 francs
The «à tact» system helped to tactfully tell the time in polite society, without taking the watch out of your pocket, without showing boredom or impatience.
On June 26, 1801, the French Minister of the Interior granted Breguet a 10-year patent for the invention of the tourbillon, a new type of regulator.
It is interesting to read the letter that Breguet wrote to the French minister to present his invention:
« Citizen Minister,
I have the honor to present to you a memorandum detailing a new invention applicable to time-measuring instruments, which I have called the tourbillon regulator, and I am asking for a patent on the design of these regulators for a period of ten years.
By means of this invention I have been able, by compensation, to eliminate the errors arising from positional differences in the centers of gravity and the movement of the regulator, by evenly distributing the friction over the entire circumference of the axes of the said regulator and the holes in which they rotate, in such a way that the lubrication of the points of contact is always equal, even in the thickening of the oil, and also to eliminate many other errors which more or less affect the precision of the movement, in a manner which is entirely beyond the present knowledge of our art, even with an endless period of trial and error.
After due consideration of all these advantages, the opportunity to improve the means of manufacture, and the considerable expenses I had incurred to reach this point, I decided to apply for a patent to establish the date of my invention and compensate myself for the expenses incurred.
Sincerely,
signed by Breguet»
Thanks to his deep understanding of physical laws, Breguet realized that the movement of a clock is affected by a change in its position. The changes were especially obvious when the watch was stored in an upright position, which was often the case, given that most of the time pocket watches were carried in a vest pocket. He understood that the main reason for this behavior was gravity. Although it was impossible to eliminate gravitational forces, he believed that they could be compensated by installing a regulating element (spring balance) and an escapement inside a movable carriage that made a complete revolution around its axis once per minute.
With this invention, Breguet not only improved the accuracy of pocket chronometers, but also created one of the most popular watch devices.
Breguet No. 2567 – tourbillon pocket watch in a hunting case with the characteristic Breguet silver-plated dial, Roman numerals and blued steel Breguet hands, 1812
In 1807, Breguet took his son Antoine-Louis Breguet (1776-1858) into a full partnership, and from that moment on the company became known as «Breguet et Fils». The commercial aspects of the business were handled by Suzanne l'Hillier, his daughter-in-law, since his wife had died in 1780.
Immersed in watchmaking from an early age, Antoine-Louis soon demonstrated excellent skills. He studied in Paris with his father and in London with his friend, the great English chronometer manufacturer John Arnold.
During these years, Breguet continued to develop his foreign clientele with increasing success. Particularly successful in Russia, it opened a branch in St. Petersburg in 1808. Unfortunately, he was forced to close it three years later when Tsar Alexander I banned the import of French goods onto Russian soil in response to Napoleon's policies.
Napoleon himself was a good patron and bought several Breguet watches, including the Pendule Sympathique. Several times he visited the Breguet factory incognito.
Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger sister and wife of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, was without a doubt one of Breguet's best clients, purchasing thirty-four watches from 1808 to 1814!
It was at the request of the Queen of Naples in 1810 that Breguet conceived and produced the first wristwatch in history, the Breguet watch number 2639, an exceptionally thin oval repeater watch with complications, mounted on a bracelet made of wool and gold threads.
There are no sketches indicating their appearance in the archives. Luckily for us, the watch is included in the repair register, what we now call after-sales service. An entry dated March 8, 1849 notes that Countess Rasponi, «residing at 63 Rue Anjou in Paris», sent watch No. 2639 for repairs. The Countess was none other than Louise Murat, born in 1805, the fourth and last child of Joachim and Caroline Murat, who in 1825 married Count Giulio Rasponi.
In 1855 they were brought back again for repairs, and this is the last trace of this Breguet left by him. Today it is unknown whether the clock of the Queen of Naples still exists, since it is not listed in either public or private collections.
Breguet's success made him rich. During his lifetime, his company produced approximately
17,000 watches. However, he always maintained a simple lifestyle. He was known for his kindness and good sense of humor.
Among the many honors received during his lifetime, Louis XVIII awarded Abraham-Louis Breguet the official title of chronometer manufacturer for the French Royal Navy. This was probably the most prestigious title a watchmaker could hope for, given that the very concept of marine chronometry implied scientific knowledge. This was also crucial for the country, as marine chronometers were of great importance to navies, allowing the positions of ships to be calculated at sea.
Breguet became a full member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1816 and received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor from the hands of Louis XVIII in 1819.
Portrait of Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1816,
when he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences
Abraham-Louis Breguet died quite suddenly at the age of 77 on September 17, 1823. The founder's only son, Antoine-Louis Breguet, took over the leadership of the company, successfully following his father's path and maintaining the highest standard of quality for which the brand is known throughout the world.
The company continued to grow and expand. The Breguet brand has maintained the highest standards of quality and constantly introduced innovation. Among the inventions of this period are the first watches with a keyless winding and watches with a sympathetic mechanism.
Watch No. 4952, created for Count Charles de L'Espine in 1830, had a knurled pusher that served the dual function of setting the hands and winding the watch. Thus the modern crown was born.
However, Antoine-Louis failed to patent this revolutionary mechanism, and ten years later a large Genevan watchmaker applied for a patent for a similar invention.
Breguet No. 4288, half-quarter repeater watch
with crown pendant, circa 1830
The Sympathique watch was built in 1834 according to principles developed by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1793. Their original patented movement allowed the pocket watch to be automatically set (synchronized) and wind the pocket watch by placing it in the recess at the top of the clock.
Breguet «Sympathique» watch with gilded bronze case housing movement with constant-force chronometric escapement
Owning a Breguet watch was considered a sure sign of wealth and success. A recognized status symbol, the name Breguet has repeatedly appeared in several masterpieces of world literature.
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, purchased a Breguet watch on July 17, 1838, a year after her accession to the throne. It was a «very small and simple watch, without repeater, very thin, for a ring», registered as number 5102.
The famous Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, one of the most famous public figures of his time, owned a Breguet watch number 4604, a simple, modest size, with a date display. They featured a gold case, an off-center silver dial, and a lever escapement. After the composer's death in 1868, his widow continued to service watches for Breguet. We don't have any photos of this watch, but luckily, we have detailed information from the Breguet archives.
Breguet No. 4961, an ultra-flat pocket watch with a half-quarter repeater, perpetual calendar, moon phases, equation of time and power reserve indicator, was sold in 1831 to Lord Henry Seymour Conway and is considered one of the most complicated watches ever created Breguet in such a thin case (only 7.7 mm thick). This historic watch was purchased at auction in 2013 for more than CHF 1,000,000
In 1833, when he was 57 years old, Antoine-Louis decided to retire to his estate at Le Buisson, near Paris, handing over the business to his son Louis-Clément, who was famous for his scientific research.
Louis-Clément François Breguet (1804-1883) was nineteen years old when his famous grandfather Abraham-Louis died. After completing his apprenticeship with Perrelet, an experienced watchmaker from Versailles, he traveled to Switzerland to work as a watchmaker and gain experience in Swiss production methods. Under him, Breguet began parallel production of standardized and customized watches.
Louis-Clément took on one of his relatives as a partner and the firm was renamed
Breguet, Neveu et Cie.
Complicated quarter repeater watch with open dial and moon phases, signed Breguet Neveu et Cie. Slightly larger than a Euro coin, this 37mm watch was sold to Russian princess Catherine Bagration in 1829 and is rumored to have been a gift to her husband Colonel Caradoc. This marriage soon broke up, and the watch was resold to Breguet in 1830. In 1835 the watch was resold to Mr. Nathaniel de Rothschild, a prominent businessman, banker and winemaker who founded Chateau Mouton Rothschild
Louis-Clément not only optimized production processes (the company produced about 350 watches per year during these years), but also diversified production into scientific instruments, electrical devices and telegraph instruments.
In particular, in 1842 he developed the electric needle telegraph to replace the optical telegraph system then in use. In recognition of his work on the electric telegraph, Louis-Clément Breguet was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1845. He received the highest awards at all exhibitions in the world, was appointed a member of the Bureau of Longitude (1852), and in 1874 was elected to the Academy of Sciences.
His name is among the 72 French scientists, engineers and mathematicians whose names are inscribed around the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Outstanding successes in the field of electronics, together with his great passion for physics and the fact that his son Antoine (Antoine Breguet, 1851-1882) shared the same interests, led Louis-Clément to the decision to devote all his attention to the production of electrical apparatus for telegraphy, railway signaling and physiology.
As a result, on May 8, 1870, the company's watch division was sold to the Englishman Edward Brown, the factory manager, who thus became a partner in the company.
Antoine, great-grandson of Abraham-Louis, was the last of the Breguet family to run the business. In fact, although he left behind two sons and a daughter, they did not enter the business. He died at the age of 31.
The watch business used the simple «Breguet» marking, while the electrical appliance business used the «Breguet FT» marking, meaning «Breguet fabricant» («Breguet manufacturer»).
By 1881, the watch company was reorganized under the name Maison Breguet and, under the leadership of Edouard Braun, continued to target the world's upper class as buyers for its luxury products, while maintaining very high quality.
When 66-year-old Edward Brown died in 1895, the firm passed to his sons Edward and Henry. After Edward's retirement in the early 1900s, Henry became head of the firm.
During these years, Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons (1851-1925) – a multi-talented scientific author, lawyer, baronet of Great Britain, nephew of the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London – established himself as one of the most experienced collectors Breguet watches.
His book «Breguet. (1747-1823)» remains one of the most valuable works on Breguet and his many masterpieces.
After his death in 1925, Salomons left fifty-seven of his Breguet watches, including the famous No. 160 Marie-Antoinette, to his daughter Vera Bryce (1888-1969). The remaining items went to Salomons' wife.
After World War I, Vera moved to Jerusalem and became an active philanthropist. After the death of her professor Leo Aryeh Mayer, rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she founded the Institute of Islamic Art. L. A. Mayer and donated her precious watch to the museum for display in a special gallery.
Some 106 of these precious watches, including the Marie-Antoinette, were stolen in 1983 and found again more than 20 years later.
In 1927, George Brown, Henry's son, succeeded his father, having demonstrated good skill in running the company.
He expanded the firm's watch range to include aeronautical instruments, such as the legendary Type 20 (or Type XX) wrist chronograph, which the brand developed to technical specifications issued by the French War Ministry in the 1950s for pilot's watches, which were to be included in the standard equipment of the Air Force and Naval Aviation.
Along with accuracy (within +/- 8 seconds per day) and reliability, the Type 20's requirements included features such as a black dial, flyback chronograph function, and at least 35 hours of power reserve.
Although Breguet was not the only manufacturer chosen to supply this type of instrument, it was certainly the leading manufacturer of watches in this style.
And we can say with confidence that Breguet's connection with the world of aviation was special. In fact, Louis Charles Breguet (1880-1955), great-great-grandson of the legendary founder Abraham-Louis, was one of the pioneers of aviation. In 1919 he founded the Compagnie desmessageries aériennes, which became Air France.
After several decades at the helm of the company, George Brown sold the brand in 1970 to Chaumet, a Parisian jewelry house based in Place Vendôme, which was founded in 1780 and was then led by brothers Jacques and Pierre Chaumet.
The Brown family led the Breguet company for 100 years (1870-1970), even longer than the Breguet family (1775-1870).
It is worth mentioning here that in 1975, British watchmaker George Daniels published The Art of Breguet, which is considered the definitive illustrated account of the father of modern watchmaking and his work. In the 1960s, before creating his own brand, Daniels was considered a leading Breguet authority and was given the title «Agent de Breguet à Paris» by his friend George Brown.
Let's return to the history of the brand. Under Chaumet's leadership, in 1976 the Breguet workshops were moved to the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland, where Swiss watchmaking was born and where it was much easier to hire highly skilled watchmakers than in Paris. Technical direction was entrusted to master watchmaker Daniel Roth, well known to watch enthusiasts for having founded his own luxury brand in 1989.
These have been difficult years for mechanical watch makers as they faced the so-called quartz crisis, and Chaumet also suffered heavy losses in its diamond buying and resale business after prices fell around the world. As a consequence, in 1987 Chaumet was purchased by Investcorp S.A., a leading investment bank from Bahrain.
Memorable watches were released during these years, including a tourbillon wristwatch in 1988 and the remarkable Perpetual Calendar Equation of Time in 1991.
Perpetual Calendar Equation of Time, 1991
Investcorp continued to restructure and in 1991 bought Valdar S.A., a Swiss company involved in the production and supply of micromechanical components to the watch industry, merging it with the newly created Groupe Horloger Breguet (GHB).
In 1992, they also bought movement manufacturer Nouvelle Lemania S.A., renowned for its exceptional chronograph movements found in many watch brands, including the legendary Omega Speedmaster. At that time, Nouvelle Lemania produced all Breguet watches, as well as high-end mechanical movements for other leading watch brands.
Nouvelle Lemania factory based in L'Orient in the Vallée de Joux.
Today it is Breguet's main production site.
Groupe Horloger Breguet (GHB) returned to profitability in 1998 with revenues of CHF 280 million and expansion into the Southeast Asian market. During Investcorp's ownership, sales increased approximately tenfold.
On September 14, 1999, the Swatch Group announced the purchase of Groupe Horloger Breguet from Investcorp S.A., adding Breguet to a group of fifteen brands such as Blancpain, Omega and Longines.
Backed by the industrial and commercial strength of the Swatch Group, the brand has all the material and technical resources necessary to develop exceptional models to meet the expectations of brand loyalists and the most demanding connoisseurs.
Above all, the brand was equipped with production facilities to match its ambitions. The recruitment of the most qualified watchmakers has been strengthened, as well as the training and transmission of rare arts and crafts to new generations.
Swatch Group President Nicolas G. Hayek considered the brand the jewel in his crown, fully agreeing with the opinion expressed by Sir David Lionel Salomons in 1921: «To one who understands movements, Breguet watches are a real painting».
And it was natural for him to create the Breguet Museum. Opened on September 13, 2000, it displays priceless documents and objects related to the history of the company. The museum is currently located on the ground floor of the Breguet boutique on Place Vendôme in Paris and is headed by Emmanuel Breguet, a seventh-generation direct descendant of Abraham-Louis.
Breguet's archives span more than two centuries and include production registers, repair books, certificates of authenticity, letters from customers, technical notes written by Abraham-Louis Breguet and his son, and of course the many rare watches that the company acquires every year.
An exceptional marketer, Hayek prepared huge celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the tourbillon patent, culminating with a large party at Versailles in 2001. As a result of Breguet's intensive marketing efforts, sales of Breguet tourbillon watches grew from 150 units in 1999 to more than 1,000 in just five years.
Grande Complication Tourbillon 1801-2001, released in 2001 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the tourbillon patent
Noting the renewed market interest in this art of watchmaking, other high-end watch manufacturers have followed Breguet's example by adding tourbillon watches to their collections, which has clearly benefited the entire watch industry.
The brand was finally in an ideal position to perpetuate the innovative dynamism of founder Abraham-Louis, as evidenced by the exceptional number of patents – more than 120 since 2002! – developed and registered by the company under the leadership of Nicolas G. Hayek and later his grandson Marc.
In 2006, Breguet achieved a major breakthrough in watch technology with the introduction of various important mechanical components in silicon watch movements.
Silicon is impervious to magnetic attraction and influence, and is highly resistant to corrosion and wear. Lighter and harder than steel, it reduces inertia, requires no lubrication and provides much greater geometric freedom, that is, the ability to create new and complex shapes.
The use of silicon for the escape wheel and anchor, and in some cases for the balance spring, has allowed the frequency to be increased, reaching 72,000 vibrations per hour on some watches, giving the watch much greater accuracy.
Silicon lever, escape wheel and balance spring
The introduction of anti-magnetic components has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. In fact, in 2010, Breguet applied for a patent on the magnetic axis, thereby breaking the taboo of magnetism in watchmaking.
This technological innovation, consisting of two counters with a particularly powerful micro-magnet at both ends of the balance wheel, has contributed greatly to the creation of a dynamically stable system capable of keeping the balance wheel centered and making it self-adjusting.
In 2012, Breguet gave the first demonstration of this amazing invention with the Classique Chronométrie, which achieves exceptional ratings thanks to the balance rotation frequency of 10 Hz
.
A Breguet Classique Chronométrie watch that received the highest award, Aiguille d'Or, awarded to the best watch of the year at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve in 2014
A year later, Breguet watchmakers once again demonstrated their innovative abilities by inventing a magnetic regulator for the striker wheels, another global achievement in watchmaking.
An innovative strike-regulator equipped with magnets and operating on the principle of eddy currents (Foucault currents), which overcomes the shortcomings of the classic friction-based striker regulator system. The interaction between the silver discs and the magnets results in constant rotation. By avoiding contact between the rotating components and the inner wall, Breguet was able to eliminate both noise and wear
Found in Classique La Musicale watches, this ingenious mechanism eliminates the typical problems of wear, background noise and the need for more power, while also providing greater precision.
Classique La Musicale, white gold,
plays «The Thieving Magpie» by Rossini or «La Badinerie» by Bach
In 2015, with the Tradition Chronographe Independant 7077, Breguet offered a clever and innovative technical solution by equipping the manual-winding movement with two independent movements: one for the hours and minutes, and the other for the chronograph.
One of the obvious advantages of having two completely separated wheel trains is that the movement remains completely unchanged when the chronograph is started. This guarantees the best chronometric performance.
This watch also introduced a new method of powering the chronograph gear train. In fact, Breguet patented a system that stores the energy needed to start the chronograph when the user presses the left button to reset it.
Traditional Chronographe Independent 7077
More than two centuries of inventions and technological advances embellish Breguet's history and shape its future in its constant pursuit of continuous improvement in watch performance, precision, functionality and design. An attitude that would certainly have made founder
Abraham-Louis very proud.
MOLE WATCH STUDIO
Our watchmakers repaired this half-quarter repeater, eliminating the reason why its original owner had to take it in for repairs so often, and serviced the movement.
Our jewelers made a new case from 18-karat gold in the original style.
And this is what we got. We gave this amazing movement a second life.
