Breguet

One of the oldest surviving watch-making establishments in the world, Breguet is a pioneer and trend setter for watch technology and design. When one thinks of Breguet watches, it conjures a sense of elegance, beauty and royalty, much like their clientele. Breguet has managed to weave their way into European art and culture in a manner unmatched by any other watch company in the world. Breguet’s style and dedication to detail has earned them a reputation for being one of, if not the finest watchmaker in the world since the company’s inception in the 1700’s. In 1775, Abraham-Louis Breguet founded the Breguet watch company at the Quai de l'Horloge on the Île de la Cité in Paris. His marriage to the daughter of a wealthy French bourgeois provided him with a dowry large enough to fund this workshop. It didn’t take long for the world to recognize his talents. Breakthroughs in watch making piled up quickly for Breguet. In 1780, he created the perpetual, or automatic watch. By 1784, Breguet had been deemed a master watchmaker, merely certifying what many had already come to know. The court took notice of his brilliance as Marie Antoinette became enamored with Breguet’s self winding movement. This lead to Louis XVI purchasing several pieces and Marie Antoinette commissioning Breguet to create a watch for her containing every known complication at the time and the greatest possible number of parts made in gold. Breguet affectionately was called the Marie Antoinette. Breguet supplied watches for scientific, military, financial, and diplomatic elites alike. He took extra special care of his most prestigious clients, creating his finest timepieces for them. In 1810, he created the world’s first wristwatch for Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples. Napoleon, one of Breguet’s most loyal customers, purchased his first carriage clock. Breguet is known to many to be father of modern watchmaking, and with good reason. Abraham Louis Breguet’s greatest contribution may have been the tourbillion. Breguet found that the gravity of a pocket watch led to deviations in time keeping. The tourbillion aims to counter gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, to negate the effect of gravity when the timepiece is rotated. Even today, this complication can only be made by the world’s most skilled watchmakers. Numerous expensive timepieces from the finest watch companies still incorporate a tourbillion in their watches as a novelty and to exemplify the virtuosity of skilled watch making. Breguet finally patented the tourbillion in 1801. Breguet’s contributions to Haute Horlogerie do not stop at the tourbillion though. Breguet also created a new striking mechanism for repeaters, a new escapement (the echappement nature), the parachute shock protection system, and the cylinder escapement with a ruby cylinder, just to name a few. These contributions ensured the success of Breguet’s firm under the rule of two Bourbon kings, three governments of the First Republic, as well as Naopleon. Breguet passed away in 1823, leaving a mark on the world of watch making that may never be matched. His iconic blue pomme hands (known as Breguet hands), Arabic numerals, hand engraved guilloche dial, and coin edged cases have remained a steeple to their timepieces to this day. Although Breguet was acquired by the Swatch Group in September, 1999, they have never strayed from their mission to create the finest timepieces in the world released in limited quantities .