Breguet (watch)

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Breguet SA
Type Member of the Swatch Group
Founded 1775 by Abraham Louis Breguet
Headquarters Vallée de Joux, Switzerland
Key people Abraham Louis Breguet, founder
Industry Watch manufacturing
Website http://www.breguet.ch
A Breguet squelette watch with tourbillon
A Breguet squelette watch with tourbillon

Breguet is a manufacturer of luxury watches, founded by Abraham Louis Breguet in Paris in 1775. Currently part of The Swatch Group, its timepieces are now (since 1976) produced in the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland. Breguet is one of the oldest surviving watch-making establishments and is the pioneer of numerous watch-making technologies, the most notable being the tourbillon, invented by Abraham Louis Breguet. Breguet has recently introduced a line of writing instruments as a tribute to writers who mention or feature Breguet watches in their works. Breguet watches are often easily recognized for their coin-edge cases, guilloché dials and blue pomme hands (often now referred to as 'Breguet hands').

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 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:

Marie Antoinette never lived to see the watch, as it was completed 34 years later, long after she had been executed. This watch is now part of the watch collection at the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem - Israel.

[edit] Company Timeline

  • 1775 - Founded in Paris by A. L. Breguet
  • 1780 - Launch of its first self winding watch known as the "Perpetuelle"
  • 1790 - Invention of the Pare-Chute, an anti-shock device
  • 1801 - Patent of the Tourbillon Regulator
  • 1870 - Company bought from the descendants of Breguet by E. Brown Jewelers, London
  • 1970 - Bought by Chaumet Jewelers
  • 1987 - Bought from Chaumet, during bankruptcy, by Investcorp
  • 1991 - Valdar was bought and folded into Groupe Horloger Breguet (GHB), still under the ownership of Investcorp
  • 1992 - Nouvelle Lemania, a manufacture of watch movements, was brought into GHB
  • 1999 - September 4 - Swatch group announces plans for the purchase of GHB

[edit] Collections

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

Notable owners of Breguet watches:

Fictional owners:

[edit] Trivia

Breguet offered a piece to navigator Bougainville as he was organizing his great expedition to the North Pole.

[edit] External links