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Lot Essay
Accompanied by Breguet original fitted presentation box numbered 3862, two metal pins for setting the hands and a gold ratchet key.
The indication of the equation of time was of particular importance for astronomers and navigators and a subject of considerable interest to the important watchmakers. It is thought that the first one to work it out was John Flamsteed who around 1670 tabulated the difference between noon mean time and true solar noon. These tables were used to check a watch against a sundial.
Some hundred years later, Abraham-Louis Breguet, universally recognized as the greatest watchmaker of all times, started the development of the most sophisticated watches with equation of time of the era.
The present watch is particularly interesting as its movement was made as early as between 1821 to 1824 but was finished only from 1965 to 1968 when dial, moon disc, hands and case were added. It was finally sold on 25 October 1968 to Docteur Halpern for the price of 70,000 Francs.
A similar watch bearing the consecutive serial number 3863 and with the additional complication of a "à tact" hand is illustrated in The Art of Breguet by George Daniels, p. 261, pl. 304a-d.
The indication of the equation of time was of particular importance for astronomers and navigators and a subject of considerable interest to the important watchmakers. It is thought that the first one to work it out was John Flamsteed who around 1670 tabulated the difference between noon mean time and true solar noon. These tables were used to check a watch against a sundial.
Some hundred years later, Abraham-Louis Breguet, universally recognized as the greatest watchmaker of all times, started the development of the most sophisticated watches with equation of time of the era.
The present watch is particularly interesting as its movement was made as early as between 1821 to 1824 but was finished only from 1965 to 1968 when dial, moon disc, hands and case were added. It was finally sold on 25 October 1968 to Docteur Halpern for the price of 70,000 Francs.
A similar watch bearing the consecutive serial number 3863 and with the additional complication of a "à tact" hand is illustrated in The Art of Breguet by George Daniels, p. 261, pl. 304a-d.