Abraham-Louis Breguet

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Abraham-Louis Breguet : biography

10 January 1747 – 17 September 1823

The watch was enclosed on both sides by discs covered with a lustrous royal blue translucent enamel over a Guilloché base machined in a chevron pattern. The front face was fitted with a single arrow-shaped hand in silver, encrusted with small diamonds, and the case was surrounded by twelve large diamonds enclosed by a wavy gold band, which was faced with lighter blue enamel. The enameled back hinged open to reveal a gold cover plate and a smaller two-handed watch face. The mechanism cover bore the engraved signature of Breguet and also bore the mark of Recordon, his London agent at the time (suggesting that it was originally made for an English client). The gold cover plate protected the mechanism, which bore another signature by Breguet, and the watch number.

Price then revealed that a similar watch, in much worse condition and with all the gems stripped from it, had recently sold for over UK₤20,000. He declared the newly discovered Breguet to be the greatest watch he had ever seen in his 28 years with the program, and assessed its value at at least UK₤50,000, although it may be worth considerably more – another example sold for US$288,000, while a montre à tact of very similar design, commissioned by Napoleon’s wife Joséphine de Beauharnais for her sister Hortense, was sold by Christie’s in Geneva for US$1.3 million in 2007.

Breguet invented the montre á tact in 1799. Although these single-hand "tact" watches are sometimes called "blind man’s watches", this description is inaccurate, since in reality few blind people of that era could have afforded such luxury items, and these innovative timepieces were in fact designed for Breguet’s wealthiest clients. The montre á tact (touch watch) enabled them to tell the time without removing the watch from their pocket because, in that period, it was considered highly impolite to consult one’s watch during a social gathering. The device also enabled owners to tell the time in the dark. This was done by turning the front disc clockwise until it went no further (because of the cam inside) and then feeling at which hour marker (indicated by the surrounding circle of jewels) the watch hand was positioned. In the case of the 2011 discovery, the 12 o’clock position was marked by the chain attachment. The watch was also fitted with a small internal dial with two normal hands so that the exact time could be read when the case was opened.

Timeline of Breguet’s works

  • 1775–1780 Improved the automatic winding mechanism – his perpetual watch.
  • 1783 Invented the gong for repeater watches (bells were used until then). Designed the apple-shaped ‘Breguet’ hands and ‘Breguet numerals’. The hands still grace watch dials today.
  • 1787 Adopted and improved the lever escapement. Abraham-Louis Breguet used it in its definitive form from 1814 (this form is still in use).
  • 1793 Developed a small watch showing the equation of time.
  • 1790 Invented the ‘pare-chute’ anti-shock device.
  • 1794 Invented a retrograde display mechanism.
  • 1795 Invented the Breguet spiral (flat spiral balance spring with overcoil).
  • 1795 Invented the "Sympathique" (‘sympathetic’) clock, a master carriage clock which rewinds and sets to time a detachable pocket watch.
  • 1799 Invented the montre a tact ("tact") watch that could be read by feel in the pocket or the dark.
  • 1801 Patented the tourbillon escapement, developed circa 1795.
  • 1802 Invented the echappement naturel, a double-escape wheeled chronometer escapement that needed no oil.
  • 1821 Developed the "inking" chronograph, in partnership with Frédérick Louis Fatton.

Generally speaking, Abraham-Louis Breguet was distinguished by the highest attention paid to aesthetic watch design.

In 2009 the Louvre in Paris presented a major exhibition of Breguet’s work, arranged chronologically, with 146 exhibits in eight sections that covered every phase of his career. Highlights included some of Breguet’s most complicated watches: