Breguet

Abraham-Louis Breguet’s workshop in Paris, which gave watchmaking the tourbillon, the Breguet overcoil, Breguet hands and guilloché dials. The brand is now owned by the Swatch Group.

Abraham-Louis Breguet was born in Neuchâtel and trained in France before opening his workshop on the Île de la Cité in Paris. His clients included Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and the courts of Europe.

Breguet patented the tourbillon in 1801 and developed self-winding pocket watches, repeaters and thin watches. The slender hands with a hollow ring near the tip took his name. After his death the business continued under various owners, and the brand has been part of the Swatch Group since 1999.

Older watches have a secret signature scratched into the dial, visible in raking light; numbers in the firm’s registers.

• Clocks and watches
• Breguet souscription watch
• Breguet Type XX