Breguet was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Abraham was a Swiss watchmaker who was born in January of 1747 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Breguet’s father’s died in 1758. Some years later, Abraham’s mother remarried to Joseph Tattet. Tattet came from a family of watchmakers. They moved to Paris where they had a showroom. The family tried to draw Abraham into the trade. Eventually he found interest and in 1762 he was sent to be apprenticed to a Versailles master watchmaker. Abraham studied watchmaking for 10 years under Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Antoine Lépine before setting up his own watchmaking business in Paris, France. The business was a success. Breguet made three series of watches, and the highest numbering of the three reached 5120. It is estimated that his shop produced around 17,000 timepieces during Breguet’s life. Because of his minute attention to detail and his constant experimentation, no two Breguet pieces are exactly alike.
His achievements soon attracted a wealthy and influential clientele: Louis XVI and his Queen Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVIII, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the 1st Duke of Wellington to name a few. In 1783, Breguet invented the gong spring for the minute repeater. He also designed the famous open-tipped hands known as “Breguet hands” and Breguet’s Arabic numerals. Later, in 1789, he invented the ratchet key known as the “Breguet key” which allows the escapement to work without oil.
In 1807, he took on his son Louis-Antoine as his partner, renaming the firm “Breguet et Fils” (Breguet and Sons). Louis-Antoine took over the firm upon the death of his father in 1823. After a couple of generations taking over the business, Abraham-Louis’ great-grandson, Louis Antoine (1851-1882) was the last of the Breguet family to run the business. The Breguet company hired English watchmaker Edward Brown to manage the factory. Brown eventually became a partner and, after Breguet’s grandson’s death, the owner and head of the company.
Whether extra thin models or complicated watches, they are all true to the technical principles, the artistry and the traditional values of the Breguet watch. Classique wristwatches capture the essence of Breguet’s original features.
Fascinating Breguet Classique Le Reveil du Tsar from Breguet Classique collection or as it is also called – the Tsar’s Alarm Clock will be a real gift for true fans of classics and traditions that have passed through the decades.
This Classique watch is directly inspired by the work of A. L. Breguet. It embodies the principles with which he revolutionized watch design: purity of form, harmony of proportion and clarity of information, reflecting the ordered beauty of the movement within. Its features are the hallmarks of the Breguet style, from its finely fluted caseband to its hand-engraved “guilloche” dial. With its strong personality, your Classique represents the ideal face of time.
The Réveil du Tsar has a lot to say, and the only possible knock against the original is that the dial and dial furniture are not ideally disposed from a legibility standpoint. The combination of a second time zone display, alarm function, 24 hour dial, indication of the power reserve, date, and running seconds display make for an indisputably busy watch.
Le Réveil du Tsar. Classique alarm wristwatch in 18-carat white gold. Self-winding movement with seconds subdial and date. Second time-zone indicator. Alarm time and alarm power-reserve indicators. Alarm on/off indicator. Silvered gold dial, hand-engraved on a rose engine. Blued steel Breguet hands with “apple” tip. Minute markers around the outer rim. Sapphire caseback. Water-resistant to 3 bar (30m). Diameter 39mm.
