Breguet (brand)

Breguet is a Swiss-French luxury watch, clock and jewelry manufacturer founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris in 1775. Since 1999, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Headquartered in L'Abbaye, Switzerland, Breguet is one of the oldest surviving watchmaking brands and a pioneer of numerous watchmaking technologies such as the tourbillon, which was invented by Abraham Breguet in 1801. Abraham Breguet also invented and produced the world's first self-winding watch (the Perpétuelle) in 1780, as well as the world's first wristwatch in 1810 (the Breguet No.2639, for Caroline Bonaparte, Queen of Naples). Breguet is a highly regarded watch manufacturer. Over the years, notable Breguet patrons and timepiece owners include Emperor of the French Napoléon Bonaparte, King George III, Queen Victoria, Alexandre I of Russia, Ettore Bugatti, Sir Winston Churchill, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Gioachino Rossini, Arthur Rubinstein and so on. In particular, the Breguet & Fils, Paris No. 2667 (1814) pocket watch ranks as one of the world's most expensive watches ever sold at auction, fetching US4.69 million (CHF 4,339,000) in Geneva in May 2012. The Breguet Sympathique Clock No.128 & 5009 (Duc d'Orléans Breguet Sympathique), on the other hand, currently holds the title of the most expensive Breguet timepiece ever sold at auction, fetching US6.80 million in New York in December 2012. Breguet was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, a Swiss watchmaker born to Huguenot parents in Neuchâtel. He studied watchmaking for ten years under Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Antoine Lépine before setting up his own watchmaking business at 51 Quai de l'Horloge on the Île de la Cité in Paris. The dowry that came with his marriage to the daughter of a prosperous French bourgeois provided the backing which allowed him to open his own workshop. Breguet's connections made during his apprenticeship as a watchmaker and as a student of mathematics helped him to establish his business.