Considered the peak of high horology, it’s now on show in London.
Sparkling under a spotlight in an otherwise darkened corner of the Science Museum’s current exhibition, Versailles: Science and Splendour, is one of the most important watches ever made. It was commissioned for Marie Antoinette in about 1783 by an admirer whose identity remains a mystery. The handiwork of the greatest watchmaker ever to have lived, it is still one of the most complicated watches in the world.
The queen’s watch, valued at more than $30 million in 2013, was created by Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), a Swiss-born merchant’s son. In a career trajectory that should reassure parents of wayward children, Breguet left school in 1762 having failed to shine, but discovered he had a remarkable aptitude for watchmaking, reports The Telegraph. It was shortly after starting his own workshop in Paris, in 1775 on the Ile de la Cité, that he came to the attention of Marie Antoinette.
Whoever commissioned it requested that it should contain all the most advanced mechanisms of the day, and no expense should be spared. Those many complications included repeating work that could chime out the minutes, quarters and hours on finely tuned wire gongs, Breguet’s new invention of automatic winding, a perpetual calendar, equation of time indication, and a thermometer.
Gold replaces other metals wherever possible within the movement. The mechanism also uses sapphire jewel bearings (relatively new at the time) to reduce friction. In total 823 parts are squeezed into a pocket watch that, at 63mm, could sit in the palm of a royal hand. Its execution was so spectacular that the whole movement was left visible through crystal dials and casing. It is, to this day, the greatest watch complication ever designed and created for a woman - and the Breguet family are still making watches.
Versailles: Science and Splendour is at the Science Museum, London SW7, until 21 April.