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As from 1771 circa, Breguet began work on a watch
that would wind itself without the aid of a key or any other external
source. The perfection of this system was the first major success
of his career. At a time when several of his contemporaries were engaged
in work on the problem without achieving any convincing results, he
became the first to discover, through his oscillating platinum-weight
watch, a formula which would produce a reliable automatic watch.
In 1780 Breguet started producing his perpétuelles
watches commercially, selling among the first examples to the Duke
of Orléans, cousin of King Louis XVI, and to Queen Marie-Antoinette.
The perpétuelle remains today one of the most powerful
symbols of A.-L. Breguet's phenomenal creative genius.
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- Breguet patented the regulating device known as a tourbillon
in 1801. The tourbillon is a device once used to eliminate the effects
of gravity on the rate of a watch.
A watch balance will go fast or slow depending on the position of the
watch. Breguet got around the problem by rotating the entire balance
and escapement about their common axis once a minute. The constant rotation
averages out all the positional errors.
A.-L. Breguet received a patent from France's ministry of the interior
for a new regulating device known as the tourbillon on June 26, 1801.
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The first true wristwatch was created
in the Breguet workshops in response to a commission from the Queen
of Naples dated June 8th 1810. Breguet watch no. 2639 took two years
and a half to complete. It was of revolutionary construction and unprecedented
sophistication, consisting of a repeating watch with additional refinements,
oblong and exceptionally slender, with a wristlet made of hair intertwined
with gold thread.
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- The shock protection system known as the pare-chute
is one of Breguet's most celebrated inventions. Starting from the observation
that, if the watch suffered a blow, the pivots of the balance wheel
were the most vulnerable part because they were so fine, Breguet decided
to give them a cone-shaped form and to hold them in place with small
dishes of matching shape, mounted on a strip spring. The system reached
the experimental stage in about 1790, and Breguet gave a public demonstration
of it in the presence of Talleyrand by throwing a watch to the ground.
Soon all his watches were equipped with it, and he presented the definitive
version at the national exhibition of 1806.
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- The chronomètre à doubles secondes or observation
chronometer, developed in 1820, anticipated the modern chronograph.
It permitted the precise measurement of intermediate periods, or the
length of time taken by two simultaneous events.
Later, with one of his most gifted pupils, Breguet built the inking
chronograph in 1822. A seconds hand could deposit a minuscule drop of
ink on the white enamel dial as required.
This ingenious principle gave rise to the term 'chronograph', from chronos
meaning 'time' and graphein 'to write'.
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Breguet watches are often easily recognized for their coin-edge
cases, guilloché dials and blue pomme hands (often
now referred to as 'Breguet hands'). |
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