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Breguet Company History
Abraham-Louis Breguet was born in Neuchatel France in 1747, as a teenager he moved to Versailles and Paris to do his apprenticeship. His first workshop opened in Ile de la Cite in Paris. Influenced by master watchmakers in Versailles he is soon introduced to French royalty including King Louis XVI. The King was keenly interested in his work and was soon impressed with Breguet’s inventions and technological ability. The King himself later commissioned ‘Perpetuelle’ the world’s first self-winding watch. During the French Revolution Breguet was exiled to England because of his Royal connections. During his exile, he also produced watches for British royalty such as King George III.
He returned to Paris in 1795, and in 1807 his son Antoine-Louis Breguet joined the company and the company became Breguet et Fils (Breguet & Sons). The company remained in family hands until the English clockmaker Edward Brown took over the running of the factory, later followed by his sons until the 1970s. During the quartz crises ownership of the company changed several times and in 1990 the company became a part of the Swatch group.
The list of Breguet’s most important inventions:
- Overcoil hairspring
- Gong spring (first-minute repeater)
- Self-winding movements (Perpetuelle)
- ‘Breguet’ hands
- first shock protection system (Pare-chute)
- Tourbillion
- First wristwatch (1810)
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A Short History of Breguet