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Watches from Breguet



More information about Breguet »

 

Beginnings

Breguet was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet at the Quai de l'Horloge on the Ile de la Cite in Paris following his marriage to the daughter of a prosperous French bourgeois. Her dowry provided the "financing" which allowed him to open his own workshop. The connections Breguet had made with scholarly people during his apprenticeship as a watchmaker and as a student of mathematics soon paid off. Following his introduction to the court, whereupon Queen Marie-Antoinette grew fascinated by Breguet's unique self-winding watch, Louis XVI bought several of his watches. Marie Antoinette commissioned the watch that was to contain every watch function known at that time, including the following:
  • A Clock
  • A Perpetual Calendar
  • A Repeater
  • A Thermometer
  • A Chronograph
  • A Power-Reserve
  • A Pare-Chute
Marie Antoinette never lived to see the watch, as it was completed 34 years later, long after she had been executed. This watch was part of the watch collection at the L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art in Jerusalem - Israel, having been donated as part of the David Lionel Salomons collection. It was stolen by renowned master-thief Na'aman Diller with many other watches - although it has recently been recovered.

Collections

 
Breguet watch (1785), bought by the Duc de Choiseul-Praslin. Musée des Arts et Métiers.
Gentleman's:
  • Classique: Simple, Grandes Complications - popular round pieces, usually with reeded bezels and soldered lugs
  • Marine - water-resistant, distinguished by the presence of crown guards.
  • Heritage - tonneau-shaped cases
  • Type XX,XXI - sturdy chronographs, based on WWII-era pilots watches.
  • La Tradition - similar to the long gone Souscription by Breguet, open-faced watches with the movement on the front, along with a small face
Lady's: (mainly distinguished by diamonds)
  • Classique
  • Marine
  • Heritage
  • Type XX
  • Reine de Naples - oval bezels