French 18 carat gold quarter repeating pocket watch Circa 1880

Gold open faced lever by Breguet
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A fine and rare French, 18 carat gold quarter repeating keyless pocket watch, circa 1880. Matte gilt movement, lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band.
A polished case with a monogram, flat band and a hinged gold cuvette.
White enamel dial with black radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic red five minute numerals, subsidiary seconds and gold spade hands. Cuvette signed.
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Diameter: 51 mm
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Weight: 101 g
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Signed: Breguet
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Abraham-Louis Breguet is born on 10 January 1747 in the Swiss town Neuchâtel (German: Neuenburg, formerly: Neufchâtel), which then belongs to the Kingdom of Prussia.He completes an apprenticeship with his stepfather Joseph Tattet in Neuchâtel and from about 1763 in Versailles. 

He then works in Paris, probably with Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean Antoine Lépine, before he opens his own workshop there in about 1775. Initially the focus is on the finissage of foreign ebauche movements, but soon follows the production of pocket watches with his own movements, in the style of Lépine.

In 1784 he is accepted into the guild as a master watchmaker and in 1785 he becomes purveyor of King Louis XVI. After the beginning of the revolution, in 1793, Breguet fled from

France back to Neuchâtel. During a stay in London, contacts were made ​​to the chronometer maker John Arnold, from which developed a friendship. In 1795 he returned to Paris.

In 1808 his son Louis enters the firm as a partner and continues it after Breguet’s death. Since then the manufacture is named „Breguet et fils“. Later on it became “Breguet” again, like this watch.
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Reference 0008000