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
: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. 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.
An inventor at the court of Louis XVI, Breguet was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 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 high-ranking 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.
Breguet No. 611 face of the small medallion "tact watch,” sold to Josephine Bonaparte on February 18, 1800. Collection Montres Breguet SA. ©Montres Breguet SA.
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, four years after Abraham-Louis Breguet's death.
The watches on view 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 Eighteenth Century.
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