Breguet

From recent post regarding the film...

The black and white film L'œuvre d'Abraham Louis Breguet, le célèbre horloger du XVIIIe siècle of the 1923 Musée Galliera Breguet exhibition was screened at the grand amphitheater of the Sorbonne on October 27th, 1923.  I have created sundry still-shots from the film and adjusted the images a trifle to make viewing the pictures a little easier. The film albeit short and sans sound is a wonderful peek at maybe the most important historical Breguet event of the 20th century.

The film: 35 mm nitrate ; noir/blanc et teinté ; muet, intertitres (français) ; 368 m, 15'40" à 20 i./s.  L'oeuvre d'Abraham Louis Bréguet, le célèbre horloger du XVIIIe siècle fut réalisé par une société française, SIDF, à l’occasion de l’exposition du centenaire d’Abraham-Louis Breguet (Neuchâtel, 1747 - Paris, 1823), présentée à Paris au Palais Galliéra (25 octobre - 25 novembre 1923). 

My favorite Breguet from the film is Breguet. No. 3583 which was Breguet 1923 exhibition catalog No. 5 (A.-L. Breguet kept this clock for himself all his life)...

Musee Galliera catalog No. 5: Pendule a 3 roues, quantieme, equation du temps, calendrier revolutionnaire. No. 3583. lent by Jacques Breguet.

From Antiquorum sale Geneva, Hotel Du Rhone, 2nd April 2006 (lot 364, Pendule à trois roues Breguet et Fils, No. 1500, number 1 of a series of 10 made by the workshop of the Musée International d'Horlogerie of La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1986, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the invention of Breguet's three-wheel clock)...

Three-wheel clocks are among the most extraordinary clocks made by Breguet. The records of the House of Breguet list only ten of them during a period of over 40 years. The first one was bought by Breguet himself and given as a present to Laplace, the last one was kept by the Breguet family. Breguet conceived of the idea for the three-wheel clock in July 1787. He deposited the design, in a sealed envelope No. 267, at the Académie Royale des Sciences on February 3, 1788. On December 5, 1881 the envelope was opened at the request of Louis Breguet. 

The below response from the French Academy of Sciences upon a recent inquiry to the whereabouts of the aforementioned letter...

Un pli cacheté intitulé « Description d’un nouvel échappement du Pendule » a bien été déposé sous ce numéro par Breguet, toutefois notre registre indique qu’il a été remis à un membre de sa famille (« Bréguet ») le 28 novembre 1880 ou 1881. 

A sealed envelope entitled “Description of a new escapement of the Pendulum” was indeed filed under this number by Breguet, however our register indicates that it was given to a member of his family (“Bréguet”) on November 28, 1880 or 1881.

The enclosed sketch of the clock is often seen but not always in its original context; the sketch appeared in the article Pendule de Breguet by Georges Anquetin in the December 1891 Journal Suisse d' Horlogerie; enclosed is a rough translation of the article.

Pendule de Breguet by Georges Anquetin

Plate II shows this clock, seen from the front (fig. 1) and from the side (fig. 2).

Only three wheels form the gear train. The largest, the center wheel A, is mounted on the winding mechanism itself, in the form of a drum B, on which two chronometer chains are wound, each carrying a weight P and passing over two rollers R placed at the top of the clock. The weights, as they descend, mark by their level the days of the week engraved on the plate.

This large wheel carries the hour circle, which, by sliding on its field, allows the time to be set by finger. Two hands T indicate true time and mean time.

Below this wheel pivot the date dials on the axis of the eccentric regulating the movement of the true time hand. The large wheel, making one revolution in twenty-four hours, must skip a day at each of its evolutions. A silk thread suspending a small steel pear H serves for plumbing, and at the same time marks the days on the date by acting as a hand.

The second wheel C carries at its pivot a three-branched hand D marking the minutes on a third of a circle. The escapement wheel E (anchor escapement) indicates the seconds on a dial adapted to it; the indicator hand is fixed to the plate.

The escapement carries the balance which is free only from front to back. It rests at the front by a steel point on a sapphire, at the rear by a steel knife in a gutter.

The compensation system is made by a brass and steel rod Liège parallel to the escapement, oscillating with it, and carrying a mobile weight K sliding on this rod and counterbalancing the balance. A needle equipped with a small counterweight indicates the state of the compensation on a quarter-circle dial F.

The base S is made of marble and bears the initial of Breguet.

If the descendants of an illustrious name have allowed us to entrust the description of this clock to the hospitality of this journal, to make known a work that has remained hidden until this day from the eyes of our masters in watchmaking, but piously. preserved in the family of the incomparable artist who produced it, a man of astonishing imagination, of prodigious genius of conception, we must say first of all that this favor is offered to the memory of Breguet rather than granted to us, who can only see and admire, while he created a series of unique works, some of which, perhaps having fallen into blind or jealous hands, are still unknown.

What has driven us to the desire to publish this summary description is that it seemed to us that by placing ourselves at a certain point of view, we could advance that this work was perhaps the highest expression of the genius of its author. We want as proof, in support of this assertion, only that which results from the fact that he chose it, to the exclusion of other more important works, however, to keep it at home, at his side, like a child that one cherishes for the perfection of his nature, of his soul, in whom one finds the qualities that one has dreamed of giving him.

In this masterpiece, what perfection of work! what elegance of forms and what simplicity of means! No meticulous and useless complication; everything goes to the goal by the simplest processes, and yet everything is complete. It is perhaps the most perfect work, according to himself, of all those born by his brain, the highest expression of the genius, and perhaps also of the heart of the great king of watchmaking.

The clock appeared often in newspapers and journals at the time of the Paris 1923 Breguet centenary exhibition, e.g. the October 26, 1923 Excelsior newspaper...

LE CENTENAIRE DE BRÉGUET: La municipalité de Paris a inauguré, hier, au musée Galliera, l'exposition de l'horlogerie, organisée par le comité du centenaire de Bréguet. Les nombreux invités se sont longuement arrêtés devant la vitrinemdes montres historiques, parmi lesquelles figurait celle que Marie-Antoinette commanda à Bréguet en 1783.

THE CENTENARY OF BRÉGUET: The Paris municipality inaugurated yesterday at the Galliera Museum the exhibition of watchmaking, organized by the committee of the centenary of Bréguet. The numerous guests stopped for a long time in front of the display case of historical watches, among which was the one that Marie-Antoinette ordered from Bréguet in 1783.

It was noted above Abraham Breguet purchased a three-wheel clock for himself and gave the clock as a gift to Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827); the clock was Breguet No. 173 (see enclosed) who at some point in time gave the clock to his physician François Magendie (1783-1855). The clock appeared in the Antiquorum sale Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, 18th October 1997.

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