BREGUET [ 寶璣] | AN EXCEPTIONAL AND VERY RARE GOLD SELF-WINDING QUARTER REPEATING WATCH WITH MOON PHASES, DAY OF THE WEEK AND POWER RESERVE NO. 60, 'PÉRPETUELLE' SOLD TO MONSIEUR JOHNSTON ON 5 JANUARY 1796 FOR 3,120 FRANCS [ 極罕有黃金自動上鏈二問懷錶備月相、星期及動力儲存顯示，編號60，1796年1月5日以3,120法郎售出]

Cn. W. Johnston

Edward Hornby, London

Sotheby's London, The Edward Hornby Collection, 1 December 1978, lot 80

E. Mannheimer, purchased from the above auction

George Daniels, The Art of Breguet, Sotheby's, 1975, p. 156, figs. 100a-b

“Breguet did not invent the perpetuelle but he certainly did perfect it.” - George Daniels, The Art of Breguet, 1975, p. 63.

Debate has raged over the origins of the self-winding watch with Abraham-Louis Perrelet and Hubert Sarton variously credited with its invention during the 1770s. Breguet was quick to recognize the importance of the self-winding or as he called it, the ‘perpetuelle’ watch. George Daniels noted in his book The Art of Breguet that Breguet’s “acute perception for mechanics and commercial instinct for business combined to make it clear to him that the perpetuelle was the key to fame. He saw clearly the requirements of a successful perpetuelle…In his writings he declares that by 1780 Marie Antoinette and the Duc d’Orléans were already in possession of such watches.” [see op. cit. 1975, p.63-64]

Early self-winding watches were criticised for their inability to stay efficiently wound in normal use and were often seen as requiring considerable and prolonged motion by the wearer in order to charge enough power to the watch’s mainspring. Breguet’s solution was in part achieved by incorporating two mainsprings, these were wound together by a heavy platinum weight pivoted at the edge of the movement. His banking springs, which were placed at each end of the pendulum-form weight’s arc of motion, had particularly flexible ends which helped to maximise the weight’s motion. George Daniels’ examination of Breguet’s perpetuelle system revealed that:

"about a mile of gentle walking will fully wind the watch and this is borne out in practice…The buffer springs…for the weight…have thin flexible ends to help the oscillations and with their aid a brisk walk of less than half a mile will also fully wind the mainsprings” The Art of Breguet, p.344.

The present watch was the final lot in the famous collection belonging to Edward Hornby which was sold at auction by Sotheby's in London on 1 December 1978. With a pre-sale estimate of £20,000-25,000, the watch achieved a hammer price of £57,000, the highest figure achieved by any piece in the auction.