Breguet

Marv
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From 1970 to 1999

To make it short, when Chaumet acquired Breguet in 1970, the Parisian "factory" was a very small workshop. There was only few watches in stock and the famous archives. A couple of watchmakers were taking care and serviced the old breguet watches.

Chaumet had more ambition for Breguet and started to leverage on its own suppliers, such as Genta Genève, before deciding to become more independant with its own factory. 3 places were shortlisted: Paris, La Chaux de Fond and La Vallée de Joux.

In addition to the jewellery activity, Chaumet was also an authorized dealer for some famous brands: AP, Chopard, Corum, Genta, JLC, Rolex, etc. So there were contacts and relations with key people in the Swiss Watchmaking sector. In particular, Georges Golay (AP) is said to be the one that convinced Chaumet to develop Breguet in Le Sentier / Le Brassus.

The big jump started in 1975. 2 watchmakers were recruited: Daniel Roth and Louis-Maurice Caillet started in 1976 in a 16 m² room rent by l'Ecole Technique Du Sentier. In 1977, the ramp up of the production required the move to the ground floor of a house in Le Brassus. 4 years later, the "factory" was extented to the 2nd floor as well and the full house was bought. In the following years, few additional places in the Valley were used. The Parisian workshop was kept as a service center.

In the 80s, Breguet was said to be profitable but the bubble of the diamond market impacted negatively Chaumet whose main activity remained jewellery . In 1987, Chaumet went bankrupted and the 2 Chaumet brothers were taken into custody before being convicted of fraud and illegal banking activities. In the same year, Investcorp's offer on Chaumet was preferred by the French Court.

In the following years, Investcorp continued to heavily invest in Breguet with the acquisition of Valdar and Lemania in 1991 and the move of the main workshops into the renovated building of l'Abbaye in 1994. Investcorp finally sold the Breguet Group to the Swatch Group in 1999.

If there is no more doubt that Breguet is now swiss, the staff of the Vendome boutique located below the Breguet museum is always very welcoming.

If anyone would like to know more about those years, a book has just been published. "Breguet, The story of a passion" It tells François Bodet's story. He is the key man during these years and headed Breguet from 1975 to 1996.
This message has been edited by Marv on 2015-05-09 13:07:52

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