Luxury watchmaker rises to the challenge by paying tribute to a timepiece ordered by an admirer of Marie-Antoinette 225 years ago
Since taking charge of the Swatch Group, Nicolas G. Hayek has turned its fortunes around. And in the past seven years considerable investments have been made in machinery, buildings, manpower and training, which have given watchmakers under the Swatch umbrella access to its own laboratories in which to innovate and create. One of the objectives of the chairman has been to return to Breguet the power and innovation it once had. And the watchmaker launched a stunning timepiece at this year's watch fair as a demonstration of this success.
Breguet is dedicating this year as a tribute to a timepiece considered one of the five most complicated watches worldwide, and one of the highlights of the BaselWorld fair.
The luxury watchmaker has revived the memory of Marie-Antoinette, with a remake of Breguet's original pocket watch, the Breguet No 160 (thereafter known as the Marie-Antoinette) which was ordered for the French queen in 1783 by an admirer. The admirer's brief was for the most spectacular watch possible, 'incorporating the entire body of horological science of the time', made in gold as far as possible, and with complications that were 'both multiple and varied'. The original pocket watch was 44 years in the making, eventually completed in 1827, 34 years after Marie-Antoinette's death.
Three years ago Mr Hayek set the challenge to reproduce an identical model. 'We think Breguet needs to share its glorious history to the present day,' a company spokesman at the fair said.
The task was not straightforward. The original pocket watch was stolen from a museum more than two decades earlier, and a team of seven experts of watchmakers, designers and engineers had only two pictures of the original, and archive material from the Breguet Museum to refer to. The challenges were considerable. 'This is special not only because it was for Marie-Antoinette, but because we also wanted the best of Breguet,' the spokesman said. 'The world of Breguet is in this watch.'