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 The history
of horology in XVIII century would not be full without the greatest genius of watch
making that ever lived, Abraham Louis Breguet. He was awarded this title not
thanks to the exterior details of his watches but for the amazing accuracy.
Among his works,
the well-known is the Breguet spiral, found until today in every quality watch
and wristwatch, and the tourbillon, the whirlwind - an ingenious device that
Breguet invented to reimburse for gravity influences on the balance spring in
pocket watches. Later on, he invented new striking mechanism for repeaters, a
new escapement, the so-called echappement naturel, similar to the chronometer
escapement in 1790.
Watches
invented by Abraham Louis Breguet as if existed beyond the basic mechanics laws
and they are still demanded. Breguet is not the brand name now; this is the
symbol of the quality for all watches. When people want to accentuate how
accurate their watches are, they mention Breguet.
Breguet Company
was established in 1775 when the young master Бреге Breguet (he was only 28)
opened his firs watch shop in Paris.
Five years later, in 1780, Abraham Louis
Breguet launched his first watches with automated winding, inertial load and
two wind-up barrels, the surprising
achievement in the watch making industry.
Three year later,
in 1783, Abraham Louis Breguet invented the construction of the impulse gong
and the first pare-chuté shock protection system invented in 1790.
When observing
watches, one can think that all services provided by watches are all invented by
great Abraham Louis Breguet, in particular free second hand, mechanism of
eternal calendar that is able to consider the length of February in the leap
year, «a-tact» watches that allow to blindly determine the time (without taking
them out of pocket), the winder, cylinder escapement with a ruby cylinder, automatic
winding mechanism, implemented in his around forty Perpetuelles, and many other
this still appreciated in our times, including guilloche dial plate,
isochronous balance spiral with the winder and many others.
Among the charming
inventions by Abraham Louis Breguet is pocket «Sympatique» watches with
automated correction of time by the «parental» chronometer in 1795. The watches
with 60-hour run are worth to mention specially, they are the great achievement
of that time, yet presently there are few mechanic watches with similar
operating run. Many modern watches replicated some design elements of Breguet's
inventions, like hands of «Breguet apple», the dial plate with ticks or dots to
symbolize minutes, seconds, etc.
And tourbillon
was the finalizing element in creation if ideal Breguet watches and the patent
for invention of this mechanism was received in 1801.
Breguet manufactured
watches fall into the class of luxury items. Moreover, it is the elite luxury.
Breguet watches were appreciated by the Queen Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Napoleon
Bonaparte, Prince of Wales, King Aleksandr I, the Queen Aleksandra Fedorovna, Sir
Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria; marshal Nay,
Selim III, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Charles
Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and many other historical celebrities. By the
way, Breguet watches are respected and worn by Vladimir Putin (Breguet Marine),
Svetlana Medvedeva (Breguet Reine de Naples - jewel watches for women encrusted
with diamonds in the golden case) and the Patriarch Kirill (Breguet Classique).
Breguet watches
were mentioned in works by the great writes like Balzac, Stendhal, Jul Verne, Dumas,
Hugo and Prosper Merimee. And Evgeniy Onegin by Pushkin clearly depicts the
iconic significance of Breguet of that time.
When the
Breguet Representation appeared in Petersburg in 1808 («Russian Breguet House»),
the fashion to have these watches was followed by all noble families like
Trubetskoy and the Yusupovs, the Golitsyns and the Gagarins, and all of them
find the Breguet watches as ‘must have' after Napoleon. That was in fashion since
the watches were fabulous and equipped with wonderful unique technical
inventions that differed in the stunning accuracy of the run, and they were
assigned to become legendary and iconic watches.
Today Breguet
Company belongs to the Swatch Group, though the traditions of quality of one of
the oldest Watch Houses in the world, established by the famous watchmaker Abraham
Louis Breguet, are still kept and observed. Breguet has always launched various
models in limited batches, keeping them exclusive as real luxury goods. Now
Breguet launches three lines of watches - Classique, Marine and Type XX
Aeronavale.
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