Breguet Buys Two Antique Breguet Pocket Watches for 7 Million Swiss Francs

Breguet bought two very rare antique pocket at an Antiquorum auction in Geneva last week. These are no normal antique pocket watches. Both are extremely rare and extremely complicated and have already arrived at the Breguet Museum in Geneva.

It’s not unusual that brands buy back their own antique timepieces at auctions. There are several brand-museums filled with the most exquisite timepieces, that the brand sold to customers or that were made on special commission. And what to do if one of these very rare and beautiful timepieces are on auction? Of course, the brand is one of the competing bidders.

Take for instance the above antique Breguet pocket watch that was manufactured in 1814. Breguet president and CEO Marc A. Hayek is commitment to preserve the manufacture’s history and the impressive sum of 4,000,000 CHF was what it took for Breguet to win the auction.

This thin pocket watch, containing two movements, is based on the resonance principle. Abraham-Louis Breguet designed it to confirm his theory that two oscillating bodies in close proximity will influence each other. And it worked! These two movements influence each other in such way that they prevent one another from deviating and they keep each other in balance. An excellent idea and something F.P.Journe now-a-days also uses in his Chronomètre à Resonance.

The following thin Grande Complication pocket watch dates back to 1827 and was bought for 2,500,000 CHF.

It feaures an annual calendar as well as a manual perpetual calendar, an equation-of-time indication and a repeater (it repeats hours, half-hours, quarter-hours, and half-quarters). Besides all these functions the pocket watch also displays mean solar time and apparent solar time. The balance wheel was especially designed so that the watch would be extremely thin, which is another attribute of this Grande Complication.

This article is written by Frank Geelen, executive editor of Monochrome Watches.