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Lot Essay
Accompanied by Breguet Certificate No. 4296 dated 17 September 2007 confirming the sale of the present wristwatch to Prince Poniatowski on 20 November 1962 for the amount of 1,850 new Francs.
Although the watch was originally entered in Breguet's archives to have left the manufacture with a leather strap, the pink gold bracelet is from the same period and is most certainly original to this watch, added upon request from the original owner at the date of purchase.
Prince Michel Poniatowski (1922 - 2002) was a descendant of a Polish Royal Family which included one of Napoleon's Marshalls, Joseph Poniatowski. His parents were Prince Charles-Casimir Poniatowski and Princess Anne de Caraman-Chimay.
Poniatowski attended the ENA for finance and began his career in Morocco, later becoming a finance attaché in Washington, DC in 1956. In 1958 he was appointed chief of staff of Pierre Pflimlin, the last president of the Council of the Fourth Republic before Charles de Gaulle.
Michel Poniatowski was a founder of the Independent Republicans and member of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's government under which he served as Minister of Health from 1973 to 1974 and Minister of the Interior from 1974 to 1977. He was also one of the founders and honorary president of the "Union pour la Démocratie Française" UDF (Union for French Democracy), a French centrist political party.
Although the watch was originally entered in Breguet's archives to have left the manufacture with a leather strap, the pink gold bracelet is from the same period and is most certainly original to this watch, added upon request from the original owner at the date of purchase.
Prince Michel Poniatowski (1922 - 2002) was a descendant of a Polish Royal Family which included one of Napoleon's Marshalls, Joseph Poniatowski. His parents were Prince Charles-Casimir Poniatowski and Princess Anne de Caraman-Chimay.
Poniatowski attended the ENA for finance and began his career in Morocco, later becoming a finance attaché in Washington, DC in 1956. In 1958 he was appointed chief of staff of Pierre Pflimlin, the last president of the Council of the Fourth Republic before Charles de Gaulle.
Michel Poniatowski was a founder of the Independent Republicans and member of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's government under which he served as Minister of Health from 1973 to 1974 and Minister of the Interior from 1974 to 1977. He was also one of the founders and honorary president of the "Union pour la Démocratie Française" UDF (Union for French Democracy), a French centrist political party.