Breguet Acquires Two Antique Timepieces at Recent Christie’s Auction
Last week at a Christie’s auction in Geneva – Switzerland, Breguet President and CEO of Breguet – Marc A. Hayek, purchased two historic gold pocket watches. One of the two watches was a rare quarter repeating watch that’s equipped with the first free escapement with natural lift ever made by Breguet (N° 1135).
The total purchase price for both luxury watches – Breguet N° 1576 and N° 1135 was 519’000 Swiss francs.
Here’s a brief description of each of the Breguet watches:
Breguet N° 1135: (photo above)
« Petite montre à répétition des quarts, échappement libre à levées naturelles ».
A unique and historically important 20K gold openface quarter repeating watch with free escapement with natural lift.
Signed Breguet, sold on 13 January 1806 to Monsieur Le Duc de l’Infantado for the sum of 4’200 Francs.
Breguet N° 1576:
« Montre à Souscription de taille moyenne »
A fine and rare 18K gold « souscription » watch
Signed Breguet et fils, circa 1805
During the French Revolution in 1794, Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced a new model of timepieces equipped with a special movement of great simplicity. The 1576 waas sold on September 8th, 1809 to Mr. Moreau, Breguet’s agent in St. Petersburg. This Breguet watch has simple and elegant design, plus utilizes a gold cuvette. Approximately 700 watches were made with either gold or silver cases.
The No. 1135 timepiece is an important find from both a historical and technical standpoint. The Brugeut 1135 watch did not require oil on the impulse surfaces. Breguet used this design to solve the issue of a free escapement with natural lift. The luxury watch maker made just thirty watches and clocks that included this unique system. Future production halted because of the high cost, development effort and production time. The No. 1135 was sold back in 1806 to Pedro Alcantara de Toledo y Salm Salm (1768-1841), who was the Duke of Infantado.