Abraham-Louis Breguet - History

History

Breguet was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland to Jonas-Louis Breguet and Suzanne-Marguerite Bollein; his ancestry was French but his family were Protestants so they fled to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Breguet's father's died in 1758, when he was ten, and his formal schooling ended when he was 12. Breguet's mother remarried to Joseph Tattet, who came from a family of watchmakers. Tattet had a showroom in Paris; the family tried for some time to entice the young Breguet into the trade, to no avail, but he eventually took to it with great interest and in 1762, aged 15, he was sent to be apprenticed to an unknown Versailles master watchmaker. At this time the Court had a great influence on the trade and the best watchmakers established themselves around Versailles.

The young Breguet soon "astonished" his master with his aptitude and intelligence, and to further his education he took evening classes in mathematics at the Collège Mazarin under Abbé Marie, who became a friend and mentor to the young watchmaker. Through his role as tutor to the dukes of Angoulême and de Berri, Abbé Marie was able to arrange for Breguet to be introduced to King Louis XVI of France, and the king's interest in mechanics led to many royal commissions for the rising watchmaker, including a perpetuelle (self-winding watch), with which the king was especially pleased. Unfortunately, Marie met a tragic end, either through murder or suicide, and soon after Breguet lost both his mother and his step-father, leaving him to support himself and his younger sister. How he managed this in the period between his parents' deaths and the establishment of his business is unknown.

Breguet was allowed to marry in 1775 after finishing his apprenticeship. He and his bride, Cécile Marie-Louise L'Huillier, set up their home and the Breguet watchmaking company; its first known address was at 51 Quai de l'Horloge in Île de la Cité in Paris (by the 1920s this location was designated as #39). Ca. 1812 the firm's address was 79 Quai de l'Horloge du Palais, although Salomons speculated that this might have been merely a change of number and name, not of actual location. By the year of Breguet's death in 1823 the firm also had a shop at 4 Place de la Bourse, which is known because both addresses appear on the label of watch #4004. The firm later moved to Rue de la Paix and in the early 20th century to 2 Rue Eduoard VII.

As Breguet's fame gradually increased he became friendly with revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat, who also hailed from Neuchâtel. Salomons' biography records that Marat and Breguet were at the house of a mutual friend one day when an angry crowd gathered outside, shouting "Down with Marat!", but Breguet contrived their escape by disguising Marat as an old woman, and they left the house arm-in-arm, unmolested. In 1793 Marat discovered that Breguet was marked for the guillotine, possibly because of his friendship with Abbé Marie (and/or his association with the royal court); in return for his own earlier rescue, Marat arranged for a safe-pass that enabled Breguet to escape to Switzerland, from where he travelled to England. He remained there for two years, during which time he worked for King George III. When the political scene in France stabilised, Breguet returned to Paris. Ca. 1792 the Duke of Orléans went to England and met John Arnold, Europe's leading watch and clockmaker. The Duke showed Arnold a clock made by Breguet, who was so impressed that he immediately travelled to Paris and asked Breguet to accept his son as an apprentice.

Breguet invented innovative escapements, including the tourbillon, automatic winding mechanisms, and the overcoil (an improvement of the balance spring with a raised outer coil). Within ten years Breguet had commissions from the aristocratic families of France and even the French queen, Marie-Antoinette. Cécile died in 1780. He met Abraham-Louis Perrelet in Switzerland and became a Master Clockmaker in 1784. In 1787 Abraham-Louis established a partnership with Xavier Gide, which lasted until 1791.

In 1795 Breguet returned to Paris with many ideas for innovations in watch and clock making. He set up business again in Quai de l'Horloge and quickly established a reputation among the new wealthy classes in the Empire. Breguet did not staff his workshops in the traditional way, with unskilled apprentices, but instead sought out the finest available watchmakers in Paris, whom he employed to make watches to his own designs.

Circa 1807 Breguet brought in his son, Louis-Antoine (b.1776) as a business partner, and from this point the firm became known as Breguet et Fils Breguet had previously sent his son to London to study with the great English chronometer maker, John Arnold, and such was the mutual friendship and respect between the two men that Arnold, in turn, sent his son, John Roger, to spend time with Breguet. Breguet met another watchmaker Louis Moinet, recognised his worth at once, and the two men worked closely together. From 1811 on, Moinet became Breguet's personal adviser.

Breguet became a member of the Board of Longitude in 1814 and the following year gained an official appointment as chronometer-maker to the French Navy. He entered the French Academy of Sciences in 1816 as a full member, and received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from the hands of Louis XVIII in 1819. Breguet's name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

According to Salomons' biography, Bregeut was known for his kindness and good humour. It is recorded that if a workman came to Breguet with a finished piece of work and an invoice for payment, and Breguet was satisfied with the work, then if the invoice ended in a zero, Breguet would add a tail to the zero to make it a '9', thereby enabling the workman to be paid nine francs more than he had asked for. He was also known for his encouragement of his young apprentices, often advising them "Do not be discouraged, or allow failure to dishearten you."

The business grew from strength to strength, and when Abraham-Louis Breguet died in 1823 it was carried on by Louis-Antoine. After Louis-Antoine retired in 1833 (he died in 1858) the business continued under Abraham-Louis' grandson Louis Clément François (1984-1883); his great-grandson Louis Antoine (1851–1882) was the last of the Breguet family to run the business. Although he had two sons and a daughter, they did not enter the business, so he took on noted English watchmaker Edward Brown of Clerkenwell to look after the Paris factory. Brown eventually became his partner and, after Breguet's death, the owner and head of the company. His sons Edward and Henry Brown headed the firm into the 20th century and after Edward retired in the early 1900s, Henry became the sole proprietor.