The 190th death anniversary of Abraham Louis Breguet was on On 17 September 2013, the watchmaking world paid tribute to this master watchmaker timeless genius.
Abraham Louis and beginning of his success
Breguet is today, like all time, an absolute reference in the world of watchmaking. His brand is recognized today with a good fame because of its seriousness and its innovations that have marked the watch industry through the years and even centuries. Its founder, Abraham-Louis was born in Neuchâtel in 1747, lived in Paris and has been all these years, innovating again and again.
In 1775 he opened his own workshop dock Clock. His first shots masters are called perpetual automatic watch in 1780, the invention of the gong spring for repeater watches in 1783, the anti-shock anti-fall in 1790, the concept of simple watch a needle device of the tact watch, sympathetic pendulum.
Breguet watches were so admired by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, who gave full trust to the brand. In 1783, one of the admirers of Marie-Antoinette password control and gives carte blanche to the watchmaker Breguet to make a show for the Queen. This gentleman never saw the color since the watch will be completed 40 years later. But beware; far from being a sword in the water, this watch is a marvel in gold that contains all the possible complications of the time. Stolen in 1983 from a museum in Jerusalem, this watch is finally found in 2007, while Nicolas Hayek had to finish the reproduction, a crazy project started three years ago. To return to the know-how and inventions that have marked the history of watchmaking, note that Breguet invented the traveling clock, but the whirlwind, patented in 1801.
9 years after the patent in full glory due to the many inventions, Breguet persists and signs inventing for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, the first wristwatch. Ensued other inventions and well deserved recognitions such as the appointment of Mr. Breguet Bureau des Longitudes, his appointment as a watchmaker of the Royal Navy, as well as the development of the Marine Chronometer double barrel or the eyepiece telescope.
Evolution of brand
Breguet died in 1823. His son, Antoine Louis then took over. In 1833, the son goes to turn the power to the little son Louis-Clément created the company, and NEPHEW Company.
The years passed and in 1970 the brand was taken over by the Chaumet brothers, Parisian jewelers. 6 years later, a new shop opened in Switzerland, Brassus resumed again in 1987 by Investor Corporation. The years that followed were filled with innovations such as the wristwatch to perpetual equation of time (1991), wristwatch with perpetual calendar online (1997). In 1999, a new era begins for Breguet with its acquisition by the Swatch Group. In 2002 and 2003, Breguet tabled two other patents for the mechanism of the moon phase, for locking the alarm and indexing time zone on the awakening of Tsar Model.
Under the impetus and the iron hand of Nicolas Hayek, Breguet has benefited from the strength of a large group who asks only to perpetuate the tradition of watchmaking and exceptional craftsmanship. Many investments have been put in place to open a new Manufacture and provide new equipment and hiring quality watchmakers face tradition of innovation of the brand and honor. Beyond these material taken into account, Mr. Hayek was also keen to perpetuate the spirit of all Breguet watches his emotional and cultural, technical, artistic and bold, a very successful challenge today because as everyone knows, Breguet, its history, its expertise, its divine and exceptional timepieces are part of a heritage that Switzerland can be proud and very happy it puts forward to the delight of lovers of haute horlogerie. Innovation, patents, art and history models, Breguet has not finished surprising us and continues to write his story and understand future as beautiful and rich as was his past.
