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Lot Essay
Until recently, this possibly unique and technically important watch was known only from the archive description. Having descended within the family of its original owner, the 2nd Earl of Lucan, it is offered here at auction for the first time.
Constructed with several of Breguet’s greatest technical innovations, the present watch can be regarded as being amongst the finest to have been produced in the master's workshops. Descended from the original aristocratic owner, it affords the serious connoisseur the opportunity to obtain a completely fresh to the market example of a great horological rarity by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet.
The Breguet Archives confirm that watch number 3105, a gold minute repeater with cuvette engraved with the equation of time, was sold to Lord Lucan and collected by his son Lord Bingham on 17th August 1819. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether it was being collected by Lord Bingham on behalf of his father or if it was intended as a gift to Lord Bingham from him.
Breguet number 3105 displays the very finest workmanship and would have been both time consuming and very difficult to construct. Subsequently it was very expensive, selling to Lord Lucan in 1819 for 4,800 Francs and thereby ranking amongst Breguet’s most costly watches of the period, the equivalent of a small fortune at the time. The price reflected not only the difficulty in making the minute repeating mechanism but also the high cost of producing watches with lever escapements, a category of watches described in the Breguet Archives as being “sur les principes des chronomètres" (constructed on the principles of the chronometers) to distinguish their superior qualities such as high-precision balance and full jewelling in addition to the lever escapement.
Minute repeating watches by Breguet are exceedingly prestigious, almost all his minute repeaters apart from a very few examples including the present watch are perpetuelles. After 1810 virtually all other Breguet repeating watches are either quarter or half-quarter repeating.
Indeed, the present watch would appear to be the only known example of a minute repeater watch constructed on the principles of the garde-temps with repeating effected by a combination of both à toc and gong.
This minute repeating system is particularly unusual in that it uses both à toc and a gong to transmit the sound. The purpose of this system was to allow an audible distinction between the hours and quarters and the minutes, this was before the production of gongs with different tones had been perfected. The system is mentioned by George Daniels in The Art of Breguet, 1975, p. 66, and one other example incorporating this type of minute repeating (watch no. 2246) is illustrated on page 210.
The construction used for the hammer to strike the gong in this watch is Breguet’s most sophisticated, when the repeating is activated the hammer does not make direct contact with the coiled gong. Placed between the hammer and gong is an intermediary solid hammer fixed to the plate by screws, the primary hammer in fact makes contact with the fixed hammer which in turn strike the gong. This system was developed by Michel Weber, Breguet's chief craftsman in June 1793 and was intended to improve the sound of the gong. Breguet said "we will equip all our best watches with this system in future".
The movement is fitted with Breguet’s final form of the lever escapement made from 1812 onwards, developed to enable him to produce a reliable watch with a close rate for everyday wear. The balance is made of laminae of steel and a special silver/copper alloy which was apparently invented by Breguet and employed in only his best watches including the perpetuelles. It is evident that the style and design of the movement layout is a development of his early minute repeating movements of 1795-1800 with full plate and separate bridge for the spring barrel.
The construction of the silver dial is also worthy of note being a "three-piece" type whereby the subsidiary seconds ring and power reserve sector scale are made as separate parts secured to the main dial by blued steel screws from the reverse.
A feature found in a number of Breguet's repeaters is the jump hour. The hand stands stationary until about three minutes to the hour when it begins to move. By the time it is half way to the next hour the minute hand will be at the hour and the hour hand will jump the remaining distance to the hour.
Directly comparable but with several important differences is Breguet number 3104, immediately preceding the present watch. It is also minute repeating and was originally sold to the Infante of Spain in 1818 for 2980 Francs. That watch, rediscovered in 2015 and sold at auction the same year for CHF195,000. It has a similarly designed movement with separate barrel bridge, however, unlike the present watch it is fitted only with a cylinder escapement and the typical two-gong form of minute repeating.
The present watch, number 3105, is not only equipped with the most unusual form of minute repeating it also possesses Breguet’s prized lever escapement and high-precision balance, explaining its considerably higher original purchase price in 1819 of 4800 francs.
We are indebted to Mr. Emmanuel Breguet for his valuable assistance in researching this watch.
See: A.L. Breguet, Watchmaker to Kings, Thomas Engel, 1994, p. 46; The Art of Breguet, George Daniels, 1975, pp. 304- 313 & pp. 341-342. Another Breguet watch, no. 2890, has a cuvette engraved with an almost identical equation of time chart. See: Breguet, un apogée de l’horlogerie européenne, Musée du Louvre, 2009, p. 248.
Constructed with several of Breguet’s greatest technical innovations, the present watch can be regarded as being amongst the finest to have been produced in the master's workshops. Descended from the original aristocratic owner, it affords the serious connoisseur the opportunity to obtain a completely fresh to the market example of a great horological rarity by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet.
The Breguet Archives confirm that watch number 3105, a gold minute repeater with cuvette engraved with the equation of time, was sold to Lord Lucan and collected by his son Lord Bingham on 17th August 1819. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether it was being collected by Lord Bingham on behalf of his father or if it was intended as a gift to Lord Bingham from him.
Breguet number 3105 displays the very finest workmanship and would have been both time consuming and very difficult to construct. Subsequently it was very expensive, selling to Lord Lucan in 1819 for 4,800 Francs and thereby ranking amongst Breguet’s most costly watches of the period, the equivalent of a small fortune at the time. The price reflected not only the difficulty in making the minute repeating mechanism but also the high cost of producing watches with lever escapements, a category of watches described in the Breguet Archives as being “sur les principes des chronomètres" (constructed on the principles of the chronometers) to distinguish their superior qualities such as high-precision balance and full jewelling in addition to the lever escapement.
Minute repeating watches by Breguet are exceedingly prestigious, almost all his minute repeaters apart from a very few examples including the present watch are perpetuelles. After 1810 virtually all other Breguet repeating watches are either quarter or half-quarter repeating.
Indeed, the present watch would appear to be the only known example of a minute repeater watch constructed on the principles of the garde-temps with repeating effected by a combination of both à toc and gong.
This minute repeating system is particularly unusual in that it uses both à toc and a gong to transmit the sound. The purpose of this system was to allow an audible distinction between the hours and quarters and the minutes, this was before the production of gongs with different tones had been perfected. The system is mentioned by George Daniels in The Art of Breguet, 1975, p. 66, and one other example incorporating this type of minute repeating (watch no. 2246) is illustrated on page 210.
The construction used for the hammer to strike the gong in this watch is Breguet’s most sophisticated, when the repeating is activated the hammer does not make direct contact with the coiled gong. Placed between the hammer and gong is an intermediary solid hammer fixed to the plate by screws, the primary hammer in fact makes contact with the fixed hammer which in turn strike the gong. This system was developed by Michel Weber, Breguet's chief craftsman in June 1793 and was intended to improve the sound of the gong. Breguet said "we will equip all our best watches with this system in future".
The movement is fitted with Breguet’s final form of the lever escapement made from 1812 onwards, developed to enable him to produce a reliable watch with a close rate for everyday wear. The balance is made of laminae of steel and a special silver/copper alloy which was apparently invented by Breguet and employed in only his best watches including the perpetuelles. It is evident that the style and design of the movement layout is a development of his early minute repeating movements of 1795-1800 with full plate and separate bridge for the spring barrel.
The construction of the silver dial is also worthy of note being a "three-piece" type whereby the subsidiary seconds ring and power reserve sector scale are made as separate parts secured to the main dial by blued steel screws from the reverse.
A feature found in a number of Breguet's repeaters is the jump hour. The hand stands stationary until about three minutes to the hour when it begins to move. By the time it is half way to the next hour the minute hand will be at the hour and the hour hand will jump the remaining distance to the hour.
Directly comparable but with several important differences is Breguet number 3104, immediately preceding the present watch. It is also minute repeating and was originally sold to the Infante of Spain in 1818 for 2980 Francs. That watch, rediscovered in 2015 and sold at auction the same year for CHF195,000. It has a similarly designed movement with separate barrel bridge, however, unlike the present watch it is fitted only with a cylinder escapement and the typical two-gong form of minute repeating.
The present watch, number 3105, is not only equipped with the most unusual form of minute repeating it also possesses Breguet’s prized lever escapement and high-precision balance, explaining its considerably higher original purchase price in 1819 of 4800 francs.
We are indebted to Mr. Emmanuel Breguet for his valuable assistance in researching this watch.
See: A.L. Breguet, Watchmaker to Kings, Thomas Engel, 1994, p. 46; The Art of Breguet, George Daniels, 1975, pp. 304- 313 & pp. 341-342. Another Breguet watch, no. 2890, has a cuvette engraved with an almost identical equation of time chart. See: Breguet, un apogée de l’horlogerie européenne, Musée du Louvre, 2009, p. 248.