Loading...A few days ago I flew to Vienna to attend an invitation by Breguet, the famous watchmanufacture based in L’Abbaye up in the Jura mountains not far from the French borders, carrying the name of the inventor of the tourbillon and of the watchmaker who maybe possesses one of the highest recognitions in watchmaking history together with his friend John Arnold and watchmakers like Jaquet Droz. All of these people were visionaries at their time. They invented things and they created things that noone else did before them. They took charge and faced challenges which we cannot imagine in our modern times.
The day started with lunch at the Kempinski Hansen Hotel in the center of Vienna. We were talking about the deep and rich history of Breguet going back to the 18th century. After lunch, we took a ride in one of the horse Fiakers around Vienna on the traces of Breguet’s past and historic customers. We then went to the Breguet boutique where we were shown plenty of timepieces including history pieces as well as current collection watches. I will come back to this later.
The Breguet Boutique is located in the center of Vienna on the Kohlmarkt. It is typical for European cities as the street can only be walked and not driven. Around the boutique you find many other famous jewelers with all the brands you have heard of.
Breguet was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. He is the inventor of the Tourbillon. Over the course of his lifetime, he supposedly created 35 Tourbillon pocketwatches.
His watches were made for royalty and aristocracy. Many famous aristocrats and policitians wore a Breguet pocketwatch.
This brings me to an amazing story. While in the boutique, the manager brought along a pocketwatch which recently came to them for a revision. It turned out that the watch is an authentic Breguet pocketwatch from 1802.
The first owner was Count of Stackelberg, one of the members of the 1814 Vienna Congress where peace negotiations for Europe were arranged for another 100 years (until WW2 started in 1914).
Let me show you a video which I created of this pocketwatch:
The history of Breguet himself as well as the brand is closely connected with famous people from highranking social status. Europe’s history was a history with many ups and downs, royalty ruled across Europe for centuries and politics and aristocracy were going hand in hand. Breguet himself managed to get the respect from royalty and aristocracy and his watches were worn by the Russian Csar, the Austrian emperor, the kings of Prussia and England, all of them were united by Breguet watches even when they were politically not united.
Breguet found himself as the “king” of watchmaking, at the top of his career, and he must have been proud to call all of them his clients. Csar Alexander I., Nesselrode, Austrian minister von Metternich who basically led the Vienna Congress, even king Wilhelm III. of Prussia as well as Talleyrand who represented with smart decisions weakened France, all of them were clients of Breguet. Honestly, I cannot recall another watchmaker who was so deeply entrenched in political and aristocratic society as he was at the time and even at other times?
Later on, prince Wilhelm von Württemberg became a client in 1805 and Bavarian king Maximilian I. Joseph acquired his Breguet pocketwatch in 1810. In 1814, the Duke of Wellington received his first watch from Breguet. The list could probably go on, and for many people outside of Europe, these people do not have the history or societal meaning as they do in Europe. Having grown up in Germany, I recall having learned a lot about European history, however, I was not aware that Breguet had so much influence.
As the Vienna Congress brought most of these people together, Breguet decided to invite Bloggers to follow the historic past and find out where history took place back at Breguet’s time.
I guess I talked enough about the history. So let’s go to the watches of today.
I would like to give impressions on the watches that are in the boutique. Breguet watches have several characteristics that are unique to them and stem from its earliest days.
Breguet watches have largely guilloche dials (and sometimes enamel dials). The case sides are called fluted cases similar to the bezels of the Rolex Datejust. It is an old style brought into the 21st century. I think it really distinguishes Breguet that they are able to bring these old skills and maintain them to date.
While the process of making a guilloche dial is quite tedious and taking days, as well as an enamel dial which is not only taking days, but oftentimes takes many tries and all failed tries have to be destroyed until the final dial is ready, Breguet will continue this legacy.
Hora Mundi by Breguet
I was given the opportunity to wear the Hora Mundi for a day during my stay in Vienna. It is a large and heavy timepiece made of white gold, heavy in terms of how any gold watch feels. Not exceptionally heavy. And not at all head heavy.
What was most amazing about this watch is not the the simple and understated looks, but the functionality. I filmed a slowmotion video of how you switch the timezones.
So the way you set the timezones is done by programming two timezones with the help of the pusher at 8 o’clock.
Once you programmed them, you can easily and quickly switch between them by pushing the pusher and releasing it right away or slowly. I tried to film the slow release of the pusher.
Not only vintage collectors know the significance of the type XX, XXI or XXII wristwatches which were made in the years after 1953 for military pilots. Below is a model from the current collection.
I will prepare another blogpost with videos and pictures of the high complication timepieces with minute repeaters, alarm functions and perpetual calendars and musical timepieces in a few days.