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How original was Breguet design?
Nowadays, a lot of elements of popular watch design are commonly attributed to Breguet, like Breguet hands. My question is, when Breguet was around, how novel were his designs overall relative to what else was on the market? Did he just capture the existing zeitgeist and that's what persisted over a long period of time, or was it more novel than that?
For example, if I looked back at that time. And I looked for Watches that were around, from larger brands, say 10 or 20 years before his work really took off what I see overall similar designs, or was his approach completely novel design wise?
How original was Breguet design?
Nowadays, a lot of elements of popular watch design are commonly attributed to Breguet, like Breguet hands. My question is, when Breguet was around, how novel were his designs overall relative to what else was on the market? Did he just capture the existi...
With a little help from my new best friend Gemini, as I can't remember that far back.
Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced several design signatures that were original and practical and which defined a new standard of elegance for the time. The first of these were the now famous trademark Breguet hands which have been used by many of the other...
Breguet’s style was distinct but not completely de novo and other makers adopted the same design codes.
And, keep in mind the same people making cases, dials, hands, etc for Breguet were also makes cases, dials, hands etc for other makers too. Part of why pocket watches used to have regional monostyles. This is a Lepine from the late 18th century that is so...
Daniel Halévy (1872–1962) writes in the introduction to the 1923 Musée Galliera Breguet exhibition catalog…
Aux environs de 1770, les horlogers avaient mis à point la technique des horloges et pendules. La technique de la montre ne faisait que de naître: les gros oignons qu'on voit encore dans les collections gonflaient les poches et marchaient mal. Abram-Louis...