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Lot Essay
The present watch, carefully preserved in one of the world’s great watch collections for almost two decades, can be regarded as being amongst the finest of Breguet’s surviving ‘perpetuélles’. Furthermore, it is one of the very few ‘perpetuélles’ to survive with its original enamel dial – an exceptional rarity.
Christie’s is honoured to offer to connoisseurs and collectors of world-class works of art alike, the opportunity to obtain a superlative example of a great horological masterpiece by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet.
This watch belongs to a small and rarefied group of Breguet’s legendary self-winding ‘perpétuelle’ watches. Arguably, it was Breguet’s perfection of the self-winding watch that brought attention to his genius among a wider public. In addition to being from the self-winding ‘perpétuelle’ series, a great rarity in itself, Breguet No. 195/3759 has the extra complication of minute repeating – an incredible feat of watchmaking skill that, combined with self-winding, means that this watch incorporates two of the most important and advanced horological refinements of the period. Minute repeating watches by Breguet are exceedingly prestigious, indeed, almost all Breguet minute repeaters apart from a very few examples are perpétuelles. After 1810 virtually all other Breguet repeating watches are either quarter or half-quarter repeating.
A significant Breguet masterpiece, the present watch would have been seen as a wonder of the age, to impress and inspire awe in all who had the good fortune to observe it. Unsurprisingly, such a timepiece by Breguet was the preserve of only the very rich. No. 195 was recorded as being first sold in 1807, it was then bought back (Breguet was always keen to buy back his perpétuelles) and resold with new series number 3759 to Henry Perkins in 1821 for 5,000 Francs. Breguet’s repurchasing and resale of his watches made great business sense as he could often resell the same watch again for a much higher price. The perpétuelles in particular were very expensive, selling for upwards of 3,000 Francs, and Breguet was always willing to buy them back, bring them up to date as required and resell them.
The present watch therefore ranks amongst Breguet’s most costly watches of the period, the equivalent of a small fortune at the time. The price reflected not only the difficulty in making both the self-winding and minute repeating mechanisms but also the high cost of producing watches with lever escapements, a category of watches described in the Breguet Archives as being “sur les principes des chronomètres" (constructed on the principles of the chronometers) to distinguish their superior qualities such as high-precision balance and full jewelling in addition to the lever escapement.
Henry Perkins (1778-1855)
Henry Perkins was a partner in the highly prosperous brewery Barclay, Perkins and Co. of Southwark in London. A notable collector, Perkins was also a devoted bibliophile, his library, while relatively small, consisted mainly of books of great value and included two Gutenberg Bibles, several books printed on vellum, and illuminated manuscripts among others. In 1873, following the death of his son Algernon in 1870, Perkins' library was dispersed. While the sale only consisted of 856 lots, the sale raised the sum of £25,000, the largest amount hitherto realised for a collection of its size.
Breguet’s Perpétuelle Watches
In the words of the inimitable Dr. George Daniels “Breguet’s early work on the self-winding watch or “perpétuelle” as he called it, laid the foundations of his future success”.
It was a sure sign of great things to come and very typical of Breguet’s commercial instinct that at the very beginning of his career he seized upon the idea that a successfully working self-winding watch could bring him fame and fortune. In his treatise on horology he writes that he made in 1780 a ‘perpétuelle’ watch for the Duc d’Orléans. Indeed, he claims that by 1780 both the Duc d’Orléans and Marie Antoinette were already in possession of his perpétuelle watches. Breguet did not invent the self-winding watch himself but perfected it – something which no other watchmaker had achieved. He succeeded in this by paying particular attention to the action of the heavy platinum weight so that it responded to even the slightest movement of the watch. The platinum weight winds two mainspring barrels simultaneously, fully wound this provides about 60 hours of running time which is indicated on the left-hand sector of the present watch. The weight can be locked stationary if required so as to prevent any possible damage during vigorous activity for instance when riding a horse. Breguet brilliantly conceived the two barrel system with a ratio so that only four turns of the barrels gives sixty turns of the centre wheel - providing not only long duration but a more uniform performance. The two-barrel system also increased consistency of power and reduced friction.
Amongst Breguet’s other technical triumphs is one which played a vital role in the success of the perpétuelles - the use of the lever escapement. Even by 1786 the lever escapement was not widely known and then only in London where just a handful of examples had been made by John Leroux and Josiah Emery. This is particularly interesting because by 1787 Breguet had entered the first 31 watches in the registers and all but one had been fitted with a jeweled lever escapement. Therefore as with the self-winding “perpétuelle” mechanism, Breguet had not actually invented the lever escapement but, presumably on a visit to London, had immediately recognized its potential and produced his own version superior in every detail to the English escapements. The essential feature of the escapement is that, except during impulse, the balance oscillates quite freely. This made for vastly superior timekeeping particularly when used in combination with the compensation balance and helical steel spring with terminal curves. The movements of the perpetuelles were deliberately fixed into cases that could not be opened by the casual observer, this was to exclude dust and inquisitive fingers, Breguet declaring that cased in this way they would run for eight years without attention.
Christie’s is honoured to offer to connoisseurs and collectors of world-class works of art alike, the opportunity to obtain a superlative example of a great horological masterpiece by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet.
This watch belongs to a small and rarefied group of Breguet’s legendary self-winding ‘perpétuelle’ watches. Arguably, it was Breguet’s perfection of the self-winding watch that brought attention to his genius among a wider public. In addition to being from the self-winding ‘perpétuelle’ series, a great rarity in itself, Breguet No. 195/3759 has the extra complication of minute repeating – an incredible feat of watchmaking skill that, combined with self-winding, means that this watch incorporates two of the most important and advanced horological refinements of the period. Minute repeating watches by Breguet are exceedingly prestigious, indeed, almost all Breguet minute repeaters apart from a very few examples are perpétuelles. After 1810 virtually all other Breguet repeating watches are either quarter or half-quarter repeating.
A significant Breguet masterpiece, the present watch would have been seen as a wonder of the age, to impress and inspire awe in all who had the good fortune to observe it. Unsurprisingly, such a timepiece by Breguet was the preserve of only the very rich. No. 195 was recorded as being first sold in 1807, it was then bought back (Breguet was always keen to buy back his perpétuelles) and resold with new series number 3759 to Henry Perkins in 1821 for 5,000 Francs. Breguet’s repurchasing and resale of his watches made great business sense as he could often resell the same watch again for a much higher price. The perpétuelles in particular were very expensive, selling for upwards of 3,000 Francs, and Breguet was always willing to buy them back, bring them up to date as required and resell them.
The present watch therefore ranks amongst Breguet’s most costly watches of the period, the equivalent of a small fortune at the time. The price reflected not only the difficulty in making both the self-winding and minute repeating mechanisms but also the high cost of producing watches with lever escapements, a category of watches described in the Breguet Archives as being “sur les principes des chronomètres" (constructed on the principles of the chronometers) to distinguish their superior qualities such as high-precision balance and full jewelling in addition to the lever escapement.
Henry Perkins (1778-1855)
Henry Perkins was a partner in the highly prosperous brewery Barclay, Perkins and Co. of Southwark in London. A notable collector, Perkins was also a devoted bibliophile, his library, while relatively small, consisted mainly of books of great value and included two Gutenberg Bibles, several books printed on vellum, and illuminated manuscripts among others. In 1873, following the death of his son Algernon in 1870, Perkins' library was dispersed. While the sale only consisted of 856 lots, the sale raised the sum of £25,000, the largest amount hitherto realised for a collection of its size.
Breguet’s Perpétuelle Watches
In the words of the inimitable Dr. George Daniels “Breguet’s early work on the self-winding watch or “perpétuelle” as he called it, laid the foundations of his future success”.
It was a sure sign of great things to come and very typical of Breguet’s commercial instinct that at the very beginning of his career he seized upon the idea that a successfully working self-winding watch could bring him fame and fortune. In his treatise on horology he writes that he made in 1780 a ‘perpétuelle’ watch for the Duc d’Orléans. Indeed, he claims that by 1780 both the Duc d’Orléans and Marie Antoinette were already in possession of his perpétuelle watches. Breguet did not invent the self-winding watch himself but perfected it – something which no other watchmaker had achieved. He succeeded in this by paying particular attention to the action of the heavy platinum weight so that it responded to even the slightest movement of the watch. The platinum weight winds two mainspring barrels simultaneously, fully wound this provides about 60 hours of running time which is indicated on the left-hand sector of the present watch. The weight can be locked stationary if required so as to prevent any possible damage during vigorous activity for instance when riding a horse. Breguet brilliantly conceived the two barrel system with a ratio so that only four turns of the barrels gives sixty turns of the centre wheel - providing not only long duration but a more uniform performance. The two-barrel system also increased consistency of power and reduced friction.
Amongst Breguet’s other technical triumphs is one which played a vital role in the success of the perpétuelles - the use of the lever escapement. Even by 1786 the lever escapement was not widely known and then only in London where just a handful of examples had been made by John Leroux and Josiah Emery. This is particularly interesting because by 1787 Breguet had entered the first 31 watches in the registers and all but one had been fitted with a jeweled lever escapement. Therefore as with the self-winding “perpétuelle” mechanism, Breguet had not actually invented the lever escapement but, presumably on a visit to London, had immediately recognized its potential and produced his own version superior in every detail to the English escapements. The essential feature of the escapement is that, except during impulse, the balance oscillates quite freely. This made for vastly superior timekeeping particularly when used in combination with the compensation balance and helical steel spring with terminal curves. The movements of the perpetuelles were deliberately fixed into cases that could not be opened by the casual observer, this was to exclude dust and inquisitive fingers, Breguet declaring that cased in this way they would run for eight years without attention.