The Louvre's Breguet Exhibition and the Marie Antoinette

When you glimpse the production ledger's page recording the stages of manufacture of Breguet no. 160, the grand complication watch known as the Marie-Antoinette, the prices these watches can command become more understandable. The actual exhibit ended in September 2009, but can be enjoyed online at the exhibition website.

Breguet and the Louvre; An Apogee of European Watchmaking
Through this retrospective of the works of Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), visitors viewed the art of watchmaking at its apogee, evidenced by these unique precision timepieces, combining genius, virtuoso techniques and avant-garde aesthetics. Assembled in the exhibition are exceptional loans – watches, clocks and measuring instruments – alongside portraits, archival documents and patents that span Abraham-Louis Breguet’s entire career.

Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Breguet completed his apprenticeship and studies in France from 1762 onwards. In 1775, at the age of 28, he married and managed to establish his own business on the Quai de l’Horloge, Paris. Watchmakers of the French capital then competed with Geneva and London in the field of scientific and artistic innovation. Breguet explored and perfected these inventions and complications. But he was not recognized as a Master Watchmaker until 1784.

These intervening years saw the gradual development of the automatic (or self-winding) watch and a timepiece with a repeater or chiming mechanism. The first self-winding watches were purchased by Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and several highranking personalities at the court of Versailles. This led, in 1783, to Breguet receiving a commission for an extraordinary watch incorporating all the innovations and complications known at the time. The end result would be one of the most famous of all Breguet watches, No. 160, also called the Marie-Antoinette, which, after several lengthy interruptions, was eventually finished in 1827, i.e. four years after Abraham-Louis Breguet’s death.

These watches immediately reveal the originality of his style, characterized by functional simplicity, technical mastery and flawless craftsmanship. His flat watchcases, easily legible numerals, rectilinear hands and guilloched dials made Breguet watches both unique works of art and discreet, practical, everyday objects, unlike the ornate, ostentatious timepieces made in the last quarter of the 18th century.

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg hosted an exhibit of antique Breguet watches held by the Russian museum: Included in the exhibition are the military field watch with pedometer that belonged to Emperor Alexander I; the watch called ‘Sympathique' of Grand Duke Konstantin; carriage clocks that were made for Napoleon Bonaparte and Prince Demidov; ceremonial watches of the Emperor on which the maps of Russia and St Petersburg were engraved; and also the Duc de Praslin watch. The latter is considered one of the most complex watches ever made by A.-L. Breguet.

Explore the history of the Breguet brand, the main inventions and innovations since 1775:

1780. Launch of the first automatic watches, known as “perpetuelles.”

1783. Invention of the gong-spring for repeating watches.
Design of the hollowed-apple hands known as “Breguet hands” and the Arabic numerals known as “Breguet numerals.”

1786. First dials with engine-turned (guilloché) decoration.

1789. Invention of the ratcheted winding key for watches known as a “Breguet key.”
Natural escapement requiring no lubrication.

1790. Invention of a shock-absorbing system called “pare-chute.”

1792. Realization of a mechanism for Claude Chappe’s “optical telegraph.”

1795. Earliest description of a clock called “sympathique” (synchronizing).
Development of perpetual calendar
Overcoil known as the “Breguet balance spring”.
Ruby cylinder.

1796. First “subscription watch”, a watch with a single hand.

1798. Patent for the constant force escapement (9 March).
Invention of the musical chronometer, a watch movement used as a metronome.

1799. First “tact watch.”

1801. Patent for the tourbillon regulating device (26 June).

1810. First wristwatch, ordered by the Queen of Naples.

1812. Appearance of the first off-center dials.

1815. Development of the double-barrel marine chronometer.

1819. Ocular astronomical instrument.

1820. Montre à double secondes or “observation chronometer,” a forerunner of the modern chronograph.

1830. First watch wound without a key.

1939. Patent for a sidereal timepiece (28 February).

1990. New sympathique clock to synchronize a wristwatch.

1991. Patent for an automatic equation of time wristwatch (April 17).

1997. Patent for a straight-line perpetual calendar wristwatch (May 15).

1998. Smallest self-winding chronograph movement in the world.

2002. Patent for the moon-phase mechanism (“Reine de Naples” watch).

2003. Patents for locking/activating the alarm function (column-wheel mechanism) and for coordinating the alarm to local time (incorporated into the classic “Réveil du Tsar” watch).

2004. Titanium balance wheel.

2005. New shock-absorbing system on the Tradition watch.
Three patents for the new Breguet detent escapement.
Centrifugal regulator of the striking mechanism (Grande Sonnerie).
Timepiece with an alarm provided with surprise-piece isolator.

2006. Watch equipped with at least two regulatory systems (Double Tourbillon watch).
Winding stern and time-setting device for wristwatches (Double Tourbillon).
Single-barrel timepiece movement with striking mechanism.
Timepiece movement with barrel featuring an improved cover fastening (La Tradition watch).

2007. Timepiece with striking mechanism comprising a double-function locking lever.
Timepiece with striking mechanism comprising a locking lever.
Multifunctional coaxial corrector device.

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The Louvre's Breguet Exhibition and the Marie Antoinette

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