“Each Breguet watch, or clock is a piece of history”
A 7th generation descendant of legendary watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, Emmanuel Breguet knows the Maison’s history like no one else. In a conversation with Turbilhão, the current Vice President and Head of Patrimony at Montres Breguet reveals what he loves most about the brand founded by his ancestor.
When did you first realize the importance of your ancestor in the history of watchmaking?
I think I always knew that Abraham-Louis Breguet, whose bust sat in my parents’ living room, was someone exceptional, even if my family didn’t speak a lot about him. I realized the immensity of his genius when I began to delve into the archives and write about him. There, I discovered not only a great scientific mind, but also an artist, a courageous man, a man respected by all the elites of his time; a man whose influence is still felt today.
Was your involvement in the watchmaking world somehow inevitable due to your roots?
My involvement in the watchmaking world is the fruit of a personal choice. As you know, my family sold the Breguet watches company a long time ago, almost one century before my birth!
I was absolutely free to choose any career but being historian by training and very interested in watchmaking, I dared to present my candidature to Montres Breguet in 1993, and almost thirty years later, I am still here! And I had the privilege to do so many exciting things: books, articles, exhibitions, travels, creation of the Breguet museum, to mention only a few…
Which is the technical invention of Abraham-Louis Breguet that you admire the most?
I admire the invention of the Tourbillon for its audacity: canceling out the effects of the earth’s gravity is no small thing! We had to dare. And – the word Tourbillon is well-chosen – it evokes the regularity of a planetary system, and that was the meaning of the word in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Tourbillon is representative of the spirit of Enlightenment: we want to understand the world and tame it. The rise of science opens immense horizons.
During the life of founder Abraham-Louis, the Breguet firm produced thousands of timepieces. Do we know how many of them still exist?
Abraham-Louis Breguet and his son Antoine-louis Breguet produced around 5000 pieces. On this total, I think at least 50 % is surviving, maybe more. Each month I continue to discover some antique pieces in Museums around the world, in private collections are on auction sales. We are requested by so many antique watches owners to determine the authenticity of their pieces. To answer your question, maybe 60 % are surviving… And to give a very precise example, almost 70 % of the 40 antique Tourbillons made by Breguet are surviving. I recently checked.
What is the most important artifact from the past in the possession of Maison Breguet? And the most valuable?
So difficult to mention only one! We had the opportunity to buy back three antique Tourbillons, to acquire one of the three double-movement watch made by Breguet (the two others are in a museum), to acquire also the tact watch of the Empress Josephine, to have the first split-seconds chronograph. Each Breguet watch or clock is a piece of history, a piece of the European patrimony. Everything is precious and valuable. Even the simplest pieces made by Breguet are demonstrating his genius. And don’t forget that the most valuable asset we keep are our famous archives: hundreds register with the precise description of each artifact made by Breguet from the end of 18th Century until nowadays.
What is your favorite masterpiece from history and why? And which one in the current collection?
Maybe the Sympathic clock, this extraordinary system where two pieces are connected! You wear the watch during the day and when you are back home you put the watch on the clock, in a kind of cradle. Then the watch is set, adjusted, and rewound by the clock. This extraordinary and complex mechanism is invisible. It is a good example of the Breguet philosophy: achieve some highly complex things while keeping an apparent simplicity. About the current collection, I specially appreciate the Classique collection, and why? Because, if I may the models have been more or less designed by A.-L. Breguet himself.
The Breguet brand has strong ties to the maritime world as demonstrated by the Marine collection. Would you mention specific Breguet inventions or solutions at the service of the world of marine navigation?
To be the official Watchmaker of the Royal Navy was the most prestigious title a watchmaker could have. Breguet was already involved as member of the Longitudes bureau. Breguet improved the escapements of the marine chronometer; he experimented many new technical solutions like a four-barrels marine chronometer, a marine chronometer equipped with a Tourbillon device, and he changed the design of the chronometer’s movements to make the repairs easier and quicker to do, to mention only a few. During at least 50 years the major maritime explorations have been accomplished with the precious assistance of a Breguet timepiece. For example, Dumont d’Urville reached the South Pole in 1840 with a Breguet chronometer. For a timekeeper, it was a world first.
Which elements from the past can be still found in the modern creations of this collection?
The Breguet antique pieces continue to be a source of inspiration for our designers, also for the team of our technical studies office. But the goal is not to copy the past, not to duplicate the past. Just to be inspired. For example, for the hands, it is a new interpretation of the Breguet hands with some references to the maritime world. The Marine collection, the third since 1990, is important for Breguet because it refers to a glorious page of our history. The Marine Hora Mundi, or the Marine Tourbillon with equation of time are, in my opinion, two important pieces who symbolize and represent all together the past and the present of Breguet. These two pieces are the flagships of the new Marine collection: a very contemporary collection full of the brand’s DNA.
