SEDAN WATCH Signed: Breguet AParis No. 432 Circa 1880 France

M&R149

SEDAN WATCH (round)
Signed: Breguet AParis
Numbered: 432
Circa 1880
France, probably for the Italian market

Movement
Brass plate movement with verge escapement and adjustable balance. The movement is equipped with a striking mechanism that strikes Grande Sonnerie on two gong rods, i.e. the whole hours fully and the quarters fully. The striking mechanism can also be made to repeat by pulling the cord that comes out of the case on the right side. The movement is equipped with an alarm mechanism. The gong rods, the balance with the regulation are located on the back plate. The winding rods of the going, striking and alarm mechanisms are located on the front. They are each driven by a spring in a barrel. The signature Breguet AParis is engraved on the back of the movement.

Dial
The round, white enamelled dial has a number ring with Roman numerals for the hour indication and minute marks. There is also a number ring with Arabic numerals for the quarter hour indication. The whole is protected by a convex glass, which is set in a guilloché brass bezel ring. The ‘Breguet’ hour and minute hands are made of blued steel, just like the straight alarm hand.

Case
The round case is made of gilded brass. A beautiful guilloché brass gilded bezel ring is fitted around the dial. The whole is crowned by a profiled brass suspension eye. On the side there is a small lever to operate striking (Sonata) or not striking (non Sonata).

Duration: 1 day

Diameter 10.5 cm.
With suspension eye 16 cm.

Literature
– Tardy, Dictionnaire de Horlogers Français, pp. 85-96.
– Antiquorum, The art of Breguet.

Breguet
Abraham Louis Breguet was born in 1747 in Neuchatel (Switzerland). From 1762 to 1767 he was apprenticed to the watchmaker’s training, probably in Versailles with Lépine and/or Berthoud. In 1768 he emigrated to Paris with his parents and sisters. In the evenings he studied mathematics at the Collège Mazarin. In 1775 he married Cécile Marie Louise L’Huillier (born in 1752). In that year the couple started a business at Quai d’Horloge 51, now no. 79, near Pont Neuf, in the middle of the watchmaking district. This can be called the founding year of the house “Breguet”. He associated himself from 1787 to 1791 with Xavier Gide, a watch dealer in Paris. On 12 August 1793 Breguet repatriated with his wife and son Louis Antoine to Switzerland, fleeing the revolution, first to Geneva, then to Neuchatel and finally to Le Locle. On 10 April 1795 they returned to Paris and settled in 1796 at the old address on the Quai d’Horloge. The years that followed until his death in 1823 were the most fruitful of his life. In 1807 his son Antoine joined the business. His son had received part of his training from John Arnold in London. He made several inventions, including the Breguet winding key, several improvements in the escapement of watches, the ‘monter perpétuelle’, the Tourbillion, the ‘pendule sympathique’, the ‘montres à tact’, also called ‘monter aveugle’ and the ‘heures sautantes’. He died on 3 September 1823 in Paris.