BREGUET

Breguet is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches, founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet, his first address was at 51 Quai de l'Horloge, in Paris in 1775. Currently part of The Swatch Group, its timepieces are now (since 1976) produced in the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland. It 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. It also produced the first wrist watch in 1810.

Breguet 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').

Thanks to his marriage to the daughter of a prosperous French bourgeois, her dowry provided the backing 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, Queen Marie Antoinette grew fascinated by Breguet's unique self-winding watch; Louis XVI bought several of his watches and legend has it that Marie Antoinette commissioned the watch that was to contain every watch function known at that time - Breguet's masterpiece, the Marie Antoinette (No. 160).

Breguet had some some distinguished patrons, such as:

- Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (1782)

- Louis XVI, King of France (1783)

- Joséphine de Beuharnais, French Empress (1798)

- Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor (1798)

- George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, later George IV (1803)

- Tsar Alexander I of Russia (1809)

- George III, King of England (1810)

- Louis XVIII, King of France (1821)

- Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1838)

- George Washington, 1st American President (1863)

- Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1901)

- Sergei Rachmaninoff, Composer (1931)

- Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti, founder of the automobile company (1932) 

- Nicolas Sarkozy, French President

- Dmitry Medvedeev, Russian President

- Leo Tolstoy, Russian Author

- Victor Hugo, writer

Breguet Collections

Gentlemen'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 World War II-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

Women's: (mainly distinguished by diamonds):

- Classique

- Marine

- Heritage

- Type XX

- Reine de Naples - oval bezels

       

               Breguet Grande Complication Marie-Antoinette Number 160 - at least $10 million

Yes, $10 million for a reproduction watch. The original watch was intended for Marie-Antoinette. However, the events of the French Revolution overtook the turnover of the watch. As a matter of fact, Breguet finished it 34 years after Antoinette’s death. It got handed down to her descendants however before finally finding a place at a museum in Jerusalem. It got stolen in 1983. After Swatch bought Breguet in 1999, the company set out to have the Marie-Antoinette. He started reproducing the watch in 2005 and completed it in 2008, or 31 years faster than the original. The self-winding watch has a minute repeater, perpetual calendar, equation of time, jumping hour, reserve indicator and bimetallic thermometer. It has 823 unique pieces and a double parachute anti-shock device. Called “The Queen,” the box alone came from Royal Oak Tree of Versailles and cost $100, 000. While the watch is not for sale, Breguet has received several offers of at least $10 million.