Re)Visiting The Breguet Museum In Paris ARTHUR TOUCHOT
MONDAY JANUARY 23, 2 017
Very few watch boutiques in the world are able to offer a client the dual experience of both getting exceptional service while purchasing a piece from its current collection AND of seeing watches that once belonged to an elite club of owners he or she has just joined. But Breguet’s flagship boutique in Paris, on the southeast corner of the Place Vendome, can do just that.
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The boutique sits on the southeast corner of the Place Vendome in Paris.
The first floor of the boutique is normal enough, with a great selection of watches from the current collection. Nothing too crazy there – it would be a little strange if it were otherwise in Paris. But, located on the second floor, is the life’s work of the company’s namesake (and founder, depending on how you choose to trace that lineage), Abraham-Louis Breguet, as well as other important pieces made by the company during the 19th and 20th century. Inaugurated seventeen years ago by the late Nicolas G. Hayek, the museum has become one of the most important horological collections visible to the public outside of Switzerland. In a short space of time, Breguet and the Swatch Group have acted furiously in the auction market to recover important watches to fill out the collection.
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This our first time back inside the museum since Ben’s visit in 2013, and the space has changed quite a bit. The museum was temporarily closed in 2015 for major renovation work – the watches are now displayed in an unassuming exhibition – but that hasn't stopped the collection from growing.
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One of the pieces we missed during our last visit was the Breguet No. 4111, an exceptional two-tone equation of time pocket watch with annual calendar, manual perpetual calendar,
mean and true solar time, and half-quarter repeating. It was purchased for 2,547,000 CHF at a Christie’s auction shortly before Ben’s visit. New acquisitions spend some time in Switzerland being documented, undergoing inspection, and being restored if necessary, before they are put on display in one of Breguet’s three museums - the other two being in Zurich and Shanghai.
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On the right, Breguet No. 4111, one of the most recent acquisitions in the Breguet museum. This large half-quarter repeating pocket watch with equation of time display, based on the chronometer principle was sold on January 10, 1827, to Mr. Peyronnet for the sum of 7,500 francs.
Unlike in most exhibitions, the pieces here are not displayed in chronological order, but rather are grouped by various taxonomies, such as type of complication. The former would allow the public to discover the maturation of Breguet's designs, as the focus through his career shifts quite obviously from the center of the dial to its periphery – some say, due to the growing influence of his son within his workshop.
Instead, the display of perpétuelles, souscription, tact, simple, and repeating watches clearly shows the breadth and multiplicity of Breguet’s talent. There's even a section dedicated to watches made specifically for the Turkish market, showing how the master could cast his net wide or dive super deep as his whims (and customers) took him.
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Today, more than 100 timepieces, and many more invaluable documents and related items, can be viewed in the museum’s rotating collection.
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I'd like to say I photographed the highlights from the collection, starting with No. 5, one of Breguet's first self-winding pocket watches, and ending with No. 1176, one of his earliest tourbillon pocket watches, but nearly every single piece in the museum deserves that qualifier and what I have for you here is merely a sample of what's on offer, including but not limited to a series of souscription and repeating pocket watches.
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No. 5, a perpétuelle pocket watch with "à toc" quarter repeater in 18K yellow gold.
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No. 1176, a high grade tourbillon pocket watch sold to Count Stanislas Potocki by Breguet's agent in St. Petersburg, 1809.
In addition to the pocket watches made by Breguet himself, there are also various military issued and civilian Type XX chronographs on display. These are definitely a HODINKEE favorite and one of the few great equalizers around the office. We showed you some last time, but here are a few more which you likely haven't seen before.
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Three variations of the Type XX from the mid-1950s, including a tropical dial flyback supplied to the Centre d'Essais en Vol of Brétigny in 1956, one with a 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers sold to the Société Aerotechnique of Alger three years later, and a rare gold Type XX made in 1955.
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No. 21122, a military Type XX chronograph with fly-back function, sold on July 10, 1975 to the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
The best way to experience all of this though is to visit for yourself. The Breguet Museum is open from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and is located at 6 Place Vendome, Paris, France.