Historically important French gold silver cylinder Circa 1825

Very fine full hunter cased cylinder watch by Breguet
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A very fine, rare and historically important French 18 Carat gold and silver full hunter cased cylinder watch with excentric hour and minute dial, circa 1825. Sold to HM King George IV of Great Britain, Montre simple plate à deux cadrans excentriques d’heures et minutes. Sold on 3 October 1825 to S.M. le Roi d’Angleterre for the sum of 2,900 francs. Gilded brass ruby cylinder movement, plain three armed brass balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel flat balance. Engine turned silver dial, eccentric hour and minute dials with Roman numerals, gold Breguet hands, surmounted by the advance/retard slide. Case with silver band, engine turned gold covers, revolving back with bayonet catch, turned to open/close the winding hole, the back opened when removing a small screw underneath the bezel, short length of gold chain and gold ratchet key, one side for the male winding, one side for the setting of the hands. Case No. 4052 by the workshop of Pierre Benjamin Tavernier (later master’s mark MAB in a lozenge, used after 1820), dial signed Breguet. Comes with original fitted red Morocco box.
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Diameter: 41 mm
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Signed: Breguet
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This watch is on the list which comprises the most important watches and clocks sold by Breguet to the Prince de Galles/Prince Regent of Great Britain/King George IV of Great Britain. This piece, watch No. 4420 ‘Montre très plate à deux cadrans’ in gold was sold to HM King George IV of Great Britain on 3 October 1825 for the sum of 2,900 francs certificate No. 2580)
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George IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland (George Augustus Frederick, 1762 – 1830), was King of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover following the death of his father George III on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent. A man of exceptional taste and style, George IV is best remembered for his magnificent patronage of the arts. George was born at St James’s Palace, London, on 12 August 1762. As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth; he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester shortly afterwards. On 18 September of the same year, he was baptised by Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (his maternal uncle, for whom the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Chamberlain, stood proxy), the Duke of Cumberland (his twice-paternal great-uncle) and the Dowager Princess of Wales (his paternal grandmother). George was a talented student who quickly learned speaking French, German and Italian in addition to his native English. He had considerable taste for music and the arts and was remarkably handsome. George IV led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the Regency era. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste. He commissioned the famous architect John Nash to remodel Buckingham Palace and Sir Jeffry Wyattville to rebuild Windsor Castle. Following his idea of a seaside spa he had the Royal Pavilion in Brighton developed as a fantastical seaside palace, adapted by Nash in the “Indian Gothic” style, inspired loosely by the Taj Mahal, with extravagant ‘India’ and ‘Chinese’ interiors. George IV was also instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery and King’s College London. His charm and culture earned him the title ‘the first gentleman of England’. On 8 April 1795 he married his cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. The two were formally separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796. George IV died in the morning of 26 June 1830 at Windsor Castle and was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on 15 July, and was succeeded by his brother Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who reigned as William IV.
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A masterpiece from the workshop of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), ‘Watchmaker of the Kings, King of Watchmakers’ and his descendants Antoine-Louis and Louis-Clément. Witnesses of often tumultuous historical and political times, the technical, innovative and decorative characteristics of this watch pays tribute to Breguet’s genius in all areas of finest watchmaking.
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A.L. Breguet is widely acknowledged for having set the standard by which all fine watchmaking has been judged ever since. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, but it was in Paris that he spent most of his productive life. No aspect of watchmaking escaped his study and his inventions were as fundamental to horology as they were varied. His career started with a series of breakthroughs. The development of the successful self winding perpétuelle watches, the introduction of the gongs for repeating watches and the first shock protection for balance pivots.
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Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie-Antoinette, were early enthusiasts of Breguet’s watchmaking. Each watch from his workshops demonstrated the latest horological improvements in an original movement, mostly fitted with lever or ruby cylinder escapements that he perfected. Breguet took refuge in Switzerland from the excesses of the French Revolution. He returned to Paris overflowing with the ideas that produced the Breguet balance spring, his first carriage clock (sold to Bonaparte), the ‘sympathique’ clock and its dependent watch, the tact watch and finally the tourbillon, patented in 1801.
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Breguet became the indispensable watchmaker to the scientific, military, financial and diplomatic elites of the age. His timepieces ruled the courts of Europe. For his most celebrated clients, Breguet designed exceptional timepieces. For Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, he conceived in 1810 the world’s very first wristwatch. Honours saluted his enormous contribution to horology. Appointed to the Board of Longitude and as chronometer maker to the navy, he entered the Academy of Sciences and received the Legion of Honour from the hands of Louis XVIII.
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When he died in 1823, all mourned the architect of the greatest revolution in the science and art of time-keeping.
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Antoine-Louis Breguet (1776-1858). Upon Abraham-Louis’ death in 1823, his only son and natural successor Antoine-Louis took over the reins of the firm. Trained with his father in Paris, John Arnold in London and with several Swiss watchmakers in the Le Locle region, he had been involved since around 1790 in the running of the house and in all innovations produced by it. Known and respected by the clientele, his only wish was to continue his father’s work. During his period at the helm of the house, production of marine watches and creation of complicated timepieces was increased. Worthy successor to his father, he constantly pushed back the limits of the possible and gave free reins to his highly developed artistic sense, some of his pieces surpassing in elegance and finesse everything produced by the firm so far. Breaking with some of the houses’ traditions, Antoine-Louis designed off center dials which were breath taking in their audacity. At the 1827 national exhibition he was awarded gold medals for his marine chronometers and his watches with complications. A highly talented watchmaker, Antoine-Louis’ interpersonal and business skills were however far from those of his father. Faced with the commercial decline, he transferred the business to his son Louis-Clément and Breguet, Neveu et Compagnie was set up on 20 May 1833.
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Louis François Clément Breguet (1804-1883). Like his father and grandfather, Louis-Clément was a trained watchmaker but also a physicist and prolific inventor. He had taken over the reins of the firm from his father in 1833, steering the renamed Breguet, Neveu et Compagnie into a new direction. Between 1835 and 1840, while still maintaining a traditional workshop for the manufacture of one off pieces ‘à l’ancienne’, in the old style, he standardized the majority of the firms production, then making 350 watches per year and diversified into scientific instruments, electrical devices, recording instruments, an electric thermometer, telegraph instruments and electrically synchronized clocks. With Alphonse Foy, in 1842, he developed an electrical needle telegraph to replace the optical telegraph system then in use. Louis-Clément also manufactured the rotating mirror Fizeau-Foucault apparatus, used by Léon Foucault and Hippolyte Fizeau to measure the speed of light (1850). In 1856 he designed a public network of synchronized electric clocks for the center of Lyon. In 1866 he patented an electric clock controlled by a 100 Hz tuning fork.
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In terms of honors, in 1843 he was appointed to the Bureau of Longitudes. In 1845 Breguet was awarded the Legion d’Honneur. He was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1874 and was elevated to Officer of the Legion d’Honneur in 1877. He is one of the 72 French scientists whose names are written around the base of the Eiffel Tower.
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Breguet was married and had one son Antoine (1851-1882) who also joined the family electrical business. Father and son met Alexander Graham Bell and obtained a license to manufacture Bell telephones for the French market. Antoine’s son was Louis Charles Breguet, aviation pioneer and aircraft manufacturer. In 1870, both Louis-Clément and his son Antoine had lost interest in traditional watchmaking. The branch was separated from the rest of the firm and handed over to Edward Brown who had been working at Breguet since 1845. Breguet then focused entirely on the telegraph and the nascent field of telecommunications. He collaborated in the development of an induction coil, later improved by Heinrich Ruhmkorff. He died in 1883, a little over a year after the sudden death of his son Antoine.