LE QUAI DE L’HORLOGE NO 2 BREGUET 3 Dear Friends of Breguet Refl ect for a moment on what it really means to invent or proach to establishing new benchmarks for mechanical to innovate. The words roll off the tongue so easily. But time keeping precision. what do they really mean? For us at Breguet true invention There is more to our timepieces than the technical innova- and innovation means fi nding solutions which others have tions found in the movements; artistry plays a large role never tried before. Remember much of what we see in the at Breguet. Our article on the Héritage collection gives a world of watches refl ects inventions made 200 years ago— glimpse of the enormous talent of our in-house guil- the time when our founder Abraham-Louis Breguet was locheurs whose hand craft is shown in each one of our alive and practicing his craft. But is it really inventive or guilloche dials. innovative to take something designed in the past, perhaps One of Breguet’s most devoted and faithful clients and a with a tweak or a twist, and incorporate it in a modern towering fi gure of French history was Charles-Maurice de watch? Our standards are much higher. I urge you to Talleyrand. Professor Marie-Hélène Huet and our histori- plunge into the article on our new Classique Chronométrie an, Emmanuel Breguet, collaborate to bring us intriguing and see what we mean by invention and innovation. Our glimpses of his life. patented design breaks entirely new ground in its ap- This and much more in Issue No. 3. Yours sincerely, Marc A. Hayek, President and CEO Montres Breguet SA 2 3 CONTENT Content 1. Classique Chronométrie: High Precision 6 2. Atelier des Grandes Complications 22 3. Breguet’s Archives 40 4. L’Héritage Collection 54 5. The Relationships Between Breguet and Talleyrand 72 6. The Sound of Time 90 7. Breguet and the Concours de Genève 110 4 5 CLASSIQUE CHRONOMÉTRIE Classique Chronométrie HIGH PRECISION By Jeffrey S. Kingston 6 7 CLASSIQUE CHRONOMÉTRIE hen scanning the horizon for watchmaking innovations, even for the most savvy of con- Wnoisseurs, it is easy to squeeze down the fi eld of view to focus upon the domain of complications. New complications, traditional complications done in new ways, and, let’s not forget, combina- tions of complications. ◆ ◆ ◆ However enchanting and exhilarating may be the Sturm watch which might intrude upon or defl ect attention from und Drang of new complication announcements, the lesson the primary objective of changing the rules for timekeeping of watchmaking history points in a different direction. Seen performance. And as a testament to its ground breaking through the prism of time, the ranks of the most celebrated, chronometry, each watch will be accompanied by a certifi - enduring, and, at the end of the day, important, watch- cate certifying its precision. making innovations have been less in the area of complica- tions but, rather, instead, have been dominated by those The development path for the Classique Chronométrie which have advanced the art of timekeeping precision. To took Breguet’s movement designers to unexpected places. If cite but a few examples, look no further than the contribu- this were to be a timepiece that would raise the precision tions to watchmaking accuracy from Abraham-Louis bar, its construction could not consist of mere tweaks and Breguet, the founder of Breguet, with his creation of the twists on standard solutions. Rather than focus on existing tourbillon, the Breguet overcoil, and the constant force es- designs, the project team began by identifying known ob- capement. Does anyone remember who developed the fi rst stacles to precision and searching for new ways to overcome perpetual calendar? them. It was this wide-open approach that freed the devel- opment from convention and sent it down the path of free The Classique Chronométrie has been conceived with spun innovation. Result: no less than four patents are em- this perspective of watchmaking history; with it Breguet bodied in the 7400 movement that powers the Classique has brought a singular focus to revolutionize watch con- Chronométrie. struction and set new standards for mechanical watch precision. Every element of the Classique Chronométrie is One of the fi rst barriers to accuracy that the designers devoted to this goal and Breguet has pushed aside the attacked was the suspension of the balance staff. The cen- temptations to add other elements or complications to the terpiece for a watch’s timekeeping is the balance wheel and ◆ The balance wheel with its two silicium spirals. 8 9 CLASSIQUE CHRONOMÉTRIE THE CHRONOMÉTRIE DIAL. There is a hint of the magnetic suspen- sion as the dial reveals the top bridge for the balance wheel. its spiral spring. Its back and forth rotations (generally spo- ken of as “swings” or “oscillations”) determine the rate of the watch. In many ways, these oscillations call to mind the swings of a pendulum used in most mechanical clocks. For centuries the standard form of construction of the bal- ance wheel has it mounted on a shaft (termed “balance staff”), the end of which is termed a “pivot” which is in- serted into what are known as “pivot jewels”, rubies with a drilled-out hole. Generally there is a second jewel, known as a “cap jewel” that is placed against the tip of the pivot, on the outside top of the pivot jewels. The pivot jewels function as jeweled bearings. Although, a huge technical leap when invented in early 1700’s, an advance that made possible adding a minute hand to watches that before only offered a rather inaccurate hour indication, and simply accepted by watchmakers for more than three hundred years therefollowing, this jeweled bearing design carries with it problems which adversely impact a watch’s preci- sion. Primary among them is the fact that the frictional characteristics of the pivot jewels are dependent upon po- sition. When the watch is in a vertical position, the most important source of friction is the contact between the 10 11 CLASSIQUE CHRONOMÉTRIE A WATCHMAKING REVOLUTION. Breguet’s magnetic suspension opens a new frontier in chronometry. sides of the pivot, pressed by gravity, against the side walls frictional differences as the position of the watch is changed. of the pivot jewels; in a horizontal position it is the force of It is remarkable to note that even as the watch is inverted gravity pressing the bottom tip against the cap jewel. From from one horizontal position to another, the balance staff this description alone it can be intuitively seen that the remains in contact with same endstone (the one positioned degree and effects of friction in vertical positions will dif- on the dial side of the movement). This is because the mag- fer from those in horizontal positions. netic fi eld created between the magnets is stronger than gravity. Said another way, the magnetic force felt by the staff Overcoming these positional friction disparities led is stronger than the gravitational weight of the whole bal- Breguet to a completely new and unanticipated method for ance. If you want to think of this as a highly localized “arti- mounting the balance staff: one employing magnetism. fi cial gravity” for the balance staff, go ahead. A second Instead of inserting each end of the balance staff into a major advantage is the overall reduction in friction; this is hollowed out pivot jewel, each tip merely touches an end- obvious as there is only minimum contact between the stone jewel formed with a shallow depression. Mounted pivot and the endstone. behind each endstone is a powerful micro magnet which, because it induces a magnetic fi eld in the staff itself, both To achieve these gains in positional performance of the pulls the balance staff towards the jewel, and exerts recen- balance, Breguet’s movement designers confronted what tering forces on the staff should there be a slight displace- previously was a watchmaking taboo. Far from being a ment of position. What is created is an instantaneously prized component in movements, magnets anywhere near self-correcting system. the environment of a watch have heretofore been greeted by watchmakers with the same enthusiasm as the arrival of a ◆ The magnetic suspension system; the two magnets are placed The advantages of this revolutionary construction are hip hop band at a Benedictine abbey. This is because tradi- behind the jewels shown in red. manifold. First and foremost, is the effective elimination of tional materials used for the construction of the balance 12 13 CLASSIQUE CHRONOMÉTRIE AN INVENTION MEMORIALIZED. The movement is engraved with the date of the magnetic suspension patent. wheel spiral are vulnerable to magnetization when exposed So, have Breguet’s movement designers been fool hardy to a suffi ciently strong magnetic fi eld. Residual magnetiza- in not only placing magnets within the watch case, but in tion manifests itself in the very fi ne coils that make up a the very zone of the movement that is ordinarily considered balance wheel’s spiral. In effect, the segments of the coil the most vulnerable to magnetization? Of course the answer become individual magnets which alternately attract and is no. For the balance spirals of the Classique Chronométrie repel each other. Result: the properties of the spiral are al- (and we shall see in a moment that the movement employs tered, which in turn, changes the rate of oscillation of the two spirals for the balance) have been fashioned in silicium balance wheel and, thus, the timekeeping of the watch. For which is a-magnetic. Thus, these spirals are essentially im- this reason many timepieces which may be used in strong mune to the magnetization risks that otherwise imperil tra- magnetic environments, such as military and diving watch- ditional spirals.