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Sep 28, 2009
By Ariel Adams for ViaLuxe.com

Breguet was the original inventor of the tourbillon complication for pocket watches about two centuries ago. It was meant to help pocket watches that sat in a mostly vertical position remain relatively accurate by attempting to average out the effects of gravity on the balance wheel.

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Ariel Adams publishes the popular luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Breguet Tourbillon Watch Exhibition In Tokyo

Breguet No. 5 quarter-repeating, self-winding watch, 1789–94, sold to Count Journiac Saint-Méard in March 1794. Collection Montres Breguet SA. ©Montres Breguet SA

Paris, France:Through a retrospective of the works of Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823) being presented in the Louvre’s Sully Wing from June 25 to September 7, visitors will discover the art of watchmaking at its apogee, evidenced by the unique precision timepieces, combining genius, virtuoso techniques and avant-garde aesthetics.

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For information, +33 1 40 20 53 17 or www.louvre.fr .

Antiques and the Arts Online – Breguet At The Louvre: An Apogee Of European Watchmaking

Posted May 30th 2009 10:00AM by Ariel Adams
Filed under: Timepieces, Events

This is something you should certainly see if you are in, or going to be in Paris at the right time. Breguet watches will be having a special exhibition at the splendid Louvre museum in Paris, France from June 25 until September 7, 2009.

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Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Breguet Timepiece Exhibit June 25 – September 7 At The Louvre Museum In Paris

Patek Philippe’s Ref. 3974, a minute-repeating, self-winding wristwatch with perpetual calendar and moon phases in 18-karat yellow gold, fetched the highest amount in the Patrizzi and Co. April auction, about $349,787.

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Patrizzi and Co. auction nets over $6.7 million

By Alix Kirsta
Last Updated: 10:57AM BST 24 Apr 2009

An audacious museum heist, in which a timepiece made for Marie Antoinette was among a haul worth hundreds of millions of pounds, left police clutching at thin air. It was only when the watch turned up 25 years later that the pieces of the jigsaw began to fall into place.

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Marie Antoinette : the queen, her watch and the master burglar – Telegraph

2009 Trends

Breguet’s most recent entries uphold its oldest and noblest traditions, discreetly displaying the signature features that set a Breguet off from all other watches made. Dials made of manually engine-turned gold, open-tipped blued steel hands, fluted caseband, unique production number – the Breguet personality comes to the fore at first glance. Every new horological and jewellery design by Breguet expresses the philosophy laid down a full decade ago by Nicolas G. Hayek: enhanced by advanced technologies and inspired by the world of culture – beauty first, beauty foremost.

This year in Basel, Breguet is introducing its latest alarm movement fitted in the new generation of Marine watches. A technological gem, the watch naturally displays the instantly identifiable Marine decorative wave pattern.

A pioneer in acoustic research, Breguet today confirms a technological advance it already enjoyed 225 years ago with its invention of the gong. A new alarm mechanism built into the diver’s watch as well as a new minute repeater are also joining the collection. The delicate art of diamond setting continues to flourish at Breguet’s, with a repeater watch that’s a marvel of technical virtuosity, impressively wedding Haute Joaillerie to Haute Horlogerie.

New entries are joining both the Classique and the Tradition collections this year. Their sweeping lines and decorative harmony are sure to captivate any admirer of fine watchmaking.

Marine Royale 5847 ~ alarm water-resistant to 300 m

Breguet’s Marine collection draws its inspiration from the original designs created by Breguet himself for the French Royal Navy after his 1815 appointment as Horologist to the French Navy. Sturdy in design, Breguet Marine watches have for decades been reputed for their dependable performances. In 2004 Breguet launched a new interpretation of this product line, featuring a markedly more contemporary and sporty but ever elegant design. Following the launch in 2007 of the first tourbillon-equipped chronograph with silicon escapement, this year brings a groundbreaking new design: the Marine Royale alarm watch, water-resistant to 300 m.

Breguet’s Marine Royale 5847 comes with an alarm device that can only delight both amateur divers and aficionados of exceptional complications. Underwater tests confirm that sound travels better through water than through air. Sound waves require material support and their speed increases with the density of the environment. Sound travels about four times faster under than above water. Furthermore, as the underwater milieu is generally far less noisy than the aerial one, the alarm’s sound is perceived with greater clarity underwater.

The alarm setting crown and on-off pushpiece, in gold, are sheathed in rubber for easier handling, adding a further touch of sporty elegance. The watch naturally possesses the usual diver’s-watch features, not least a one-way rotating bezel inscribed with a graduated 20-minute sector. The bezel’s unidirectional rotation is secured by a blocking pawl, visible and located between the two winding crowns on the case flank. Shaped like a wave, it recalls the watch’s essential functions. To improve its legibility even in the murkiest waters, its minute markers and hand along with the hour hand are coated with white luminous superluminova while the hour and alarm markers glow blue. Represented by a blue triangular pointer at 10 o’clock, the power-reserve indicator is also luminous.

Rounding out its attributes, the Marine Royale 5847 possesses a date indicator and a self-winding mechanism. The white gold version comes with an 18 kt dial with black rhodium finish while the pink gold version features an 18 kt pink gold dial. Both are manually engine-turned with the collection’s dedicated wave pattern.

Classique 7337 ~ Date, moon phases and running seconds

 

The Classique 7337’s spare design derives directly from the early Breguet watches found today in the Breguet Museum on Place Vendôme in Paris. Epitomizing Breguet’s timeless Classique collection, this elegant wristwatch shows the days of the week, the age and phases of the moon and the date. Hours and minutes are shown on an off-centered hour chapter in the Breguet style while at 5 o’clock the running seconds give the watch its asymmetrical allure. Inspired by the Museum’s no. 3833 antique watch, the date and the day of the week are positioned on either side of the indication of the age and phases of the moon, situated just above the off-centered hour chapter. This memorable design comes in a 39 mm case with sapphire caseback fashioned in a choice of white and yellow gold and equipped with now famous extra-thin Breguet caliber 502 fitted with an auxiliary plate.

Classique Grande Complication 7637 ~ Minute repeater

Today still, the minute repeater ranks supreme among horological complications. Universally admired, its intricate construction has remained the preserve of a few master watchmakers with the skill and patience to fit and adjust its delicate parts. In 2008, Breguet came out with a new way of designing these technological marvels, fitting them with an entirely re-engineered movement incorporating new materials and featuring innovative positions for the gongs, gong rests and hammers. This patented technique is now in service on Breguet minute repeater no. 7637. Its large, 42 mm white or pink gold case houses a minute repeater movement featuring running seconds at 9 o’clock and a 24-hour (day/night) subdial at 3 o’clock. The crystal-clear sound issuing from the case had never been heard before in any repeater without chimes. The gold gongs match the color of the case while the hard-metal hammers have been polished and beveled – no mean feat for such unyielding material. The hand-wound movement visible through the clear sapphire case back has been entirely chased by hand while, in true Breguet style, the dial is manually engine-turned silvered gold.

Classique Grande Complication 7839 ~ Haute Joaillerie Minute repeater

Another achievement of Breguet’s acoustic laboratory, the Classique Grande Complication 7639, “senior” companion piece to the 7637 design, adds the prestige of baguette diamonds to the minute repeater function. Ideal for conveying sound vibrations beyond the case, diamond’s hardness and pureness further improve the watch’s sonority by reducing vibration loss to a minimum. Following the lead of major sound-system specialists whose loudspeakers now feature diamond conduction, Breguet has decided to introduce a fully diamond-set design whose setting is as perfect as the acoustic performance of its minute repeater. Watch 7639 emits a spectacularly pure sound that is certain to delight any connoisseur of ringing or chiming Grande Horlogerie. Including its bracelet attachments, crown and dial, the case is entirely covered in invisibly set diamonds that turn the watch into a fabulous gem.

Classique Grande Complication 5347 Double Tourbillon

The spectacular outcome of years of diligent development, the Breguet Double Tourbillon includes a hand-wound movement fitted with a pair of tourbillon regulators rotating on the hour axis. An aesthetic as well as a technical masterpiece, the watch features today a pink gold case 44 mm in diameter housing over 570 components, all painstakingly assembled by Breguet’s master watchmakers.

Working independently from one another, two tourbillons are coupled by means of differential gears and mounted on a rotating centre plate effecting a complete revolution in twelve hours. The differential device conveys the two tourbillons’ mean rate to the rotating centre plate and to the time-display mechanism. The rate of the watch is thus the mean rate of the two tourbillons, making its movement twice as precise as a normal one. The hour is shown by the bridge connecting the tourbillon regulators doubling as a watch hand, while the minutes are indicated by a standard hand at centre.

Impeccable finish and spectacular new engraving work on the back of the movement further underscore this exceptional timepiece’s appeal. A manually engine-turned mainplate, a chapter ring inscribed with Roman numerals, pink gilt Breguet hands, a movement with decorated bridges and bars and other parts beveled and polished further testify to an exceptionally handsome design of unrivalled beauty and refinement.

First introduced at the 2006 Basle Fair but initially available in insufficient numbers, this grande complication design with double tourbillon was in 2008 delivered to Breguet clients who had ordered the watch, often paying in advance. Despite an increase in recent orders joining as yet undelivered earlier orders, newly added manufacturing capacity has allowed Breguet to schedule delivery of the first pink gold models for the end of 2009.

Tradition 7027 in pink gold

Unique in the history of watchmaking and symbolic of Breguet’s own origins, the emblematic Tradition 7027 design returns in a two-color version. Its now-celebrated caliber 507DR displays the entire movement, built on either side of the mainplate though mostly on the front of the plate. Its pink gold case holds an anthracite grey movement that emphasizes its bridges and bars, in particular the escapement’s, fitted with its celebrated old-style “pare-chute” in hand-beveled steel. The movement proper has received a grey anthracite surface treatment, basically an improved electroplating technique, employing an alloy of precious metals of the platinum family darker in hue than the ruthenium traditionally favored by watchmakers.

The visual contrasts between the anthracite movement and the pink gold case add to the watch’s crisp contemporary good looks with a revolutionary touch or two, not least the time of day displayed on a lustrous black dial off-centered at 12 o’clock.

The Tradition 7027 is also available in pink gold with pink gold mainplate, bridges and bars or in a white gold case fitted with the new anthracite movement.

Basel 2009 Press Release

Mechanical wristwatches (as opposed to battery-powered ones) offer us what sci-fi writer William Gibson called the “tamogotchi experience”: the sense that we are wearing and tending to a living thing that whirrs and ticks on our wrist. Throughout the years, these machines have kept the trains running on time and helped the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit make his two-martini lunch. Sadly, however, these gems are now frequently absent from our wrists thanks to those ubiquitous portable time-telling devices?laptops and cellphones. Watch expert John Biggs offers an in-depth look at some of the most amazing watches from this century and beyond?including a hockey-puck-size watch that is one of the most complex mechanical devices ever made.

1. 1794 | William Anthony’s “The Pearl Star”

Why it Matters: The Pearl Star is one of the first watches with expanding hands.

The Story: Attributed to William Anthony of London, this pocket watch has an oblong case with automatically extending hands. When the hands are at noon, for example, they are fully extended up to the top of the case. When they are at 9:15, they automatically shorten to fit without touching the sides of the case.

2. 1800 | Perrin Freres “Wandering Hours”

Why it Matters: One of the first “digital” watches that used a unique system of hands to display the time.

The Story: The vision of a “digital” watch?meaning one that showed the hours in minutes using rotating numerals instead of hands?has always been an important pursuit in watchmaking. Perrin Freres of Switzerland created an amazing variation on this with the Wandering Hours in 1800. Three hands circled a central pivot and on the tip of each, four small hour numerals spin into place at the end of each hour. With the case closed, the watch looks like a fuel gauge showing minutes and hours but inside you find a riot of gears and hands.

3. 1910 | The Rolex Oyster Perpetual

Why it Matters: The Rolex Oyster redefined where you could take a watch by making it waterproof.

The Story: Like most great innovations, the Rolex merges two simple technologies to create something that no one thought they needed but then became indispensible. The technology, the perpetual movement, was first conceived by Louis Perrelet in the 1750s and was perfected by Rolex. A small weight wound the watch when the wearer moved his or her arm, resulting in a watch that ran “perpetually” with no need for daily winding.
The next innovation was a crown that screwed down to protect the inside of the watch from water. They advertised the first model in 1910 by dunking the watches in aquariums in watch shops around the world. Rolex thus became synonymous with diving watches.

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