"Time goes, you say? Ah no! Alas ,Time stays we go".

So wrote the philosopher Aelius Donatus in the 4th century AD. And it is ironic to think that Man has wasted so much time in the vain hope of finding a fountain of youth, and elixir of immortality. Misplaced vanity perhaps. Yet even at the dawn of Man's existence, the simplest sun-dial mocked such arrogance, signposting time's perpetual forward progress with unfailing certainty.

An unalterable fact, time has let the fertile minds of ingenious men to conceive and plot its course with man-made instruments of which the sun-dial remains a rather crude yet necessary beginning. It was the very perpetuity of time which inspired learned men to talk of infinity and eternity thus inspiring even the earliest horologists to find an instrument which could keep pace with time and record its passage.

One of the first watchmakers to develop anything even remotely resembling a perpetual timekeeper was the Swiss born Abraham-Louis Breguet. A recognised technological genius whose creative output out-stripped the thinking of even his most astute contemporaries, Breguet was only 15 when he was apprenticed to the master watchmakers. Born in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1747, Breguet was only in his thirties when he revolutionised the craft of horology, introducing the world to the reality of the automatic clock, the tactile watch for the blind and so many benchmark innovations that he would be paraded before Kings and Statesmen as the greatest watchmaker of his or any other time.

It was Breguet's ability to articulate the relationship between the ethereal nature of time and the dilemma of physically representing it accurately, which set him apart even as a lowly apprentice. Reasoning that a timepiece had to mimic time rather than the other way round, Breguet struggled to develop movements which would take into account such error-inducing factors as variations in position and balance of the timepiece. Although it wouldn't be until 1795 that Breguet would develop the revolving carriage watch - the Tourbillon, which eliminated positional errors by rotating the balance once each minute, he was already being hailed as the leading watchmaker of his generation by the time he opened for business in Paris in 1775.

A skilled craftsman in an era when matchmaking was still an art rather than an industry, Breguet won the much coveted approval of the then French King Louis XV, who as a patron of the arts and crafts encouraged the young watchmaker by introducing his work to the royal Courts of Europe. It was only the outbreak of the French Revolution which forced Breguet out of France and back to the famed watchnaming region of Jura in his native Switzerland, where today the timepieces bearing his name are handcrafted in modern workshops in Le Brassus, Vallee de Joux.

"What set Breguet apart and impressed the likes of King Louis, was his ability to do what other watchmakers before him had not done", explains M. Francois Bodet, General Manager of Breguet today. "Where others had concentrated on producing simple timepieces, Breguet went one step further. Not only did he produce watches which had improved on the technical excellence for which his fellow Swiss continue to be recognised, but he married it to the best of the unequalled French flair for style and elegance".

No doubt inspired by the sheer majesty and opulence of Eighteenth century French architecture and the regal splendour of French design, Breguet sought to reflect such beauty in his own creations. But this, only after he had perfected the mechanics of timekeeping to an unparalleled level of sophistication.

One of Breguet's earliest triumphs was the perpetual or automatic watch which was so precise it was capable of running for eight years without slowing down or needing an overhaul. Unprecedented too was the development of the multiple complication watch which besides showing merely the time also kept track of the date, month and even the phases of the moon. All of this for the first time on the one dial. Such multiple functions required Breguet to design and perfect mechanisms so intricate that it became possible to make timepieces accurate to within 1/10th of a second.

The consequence of this work led to significant refinements in other areas such as marine navigation and astronomy, with Breguet's uncanny ability to couple the laws of physics with the practicalities of instrument design forging the way for progress in both disciplines. The modern marine chronometer, for instance, owes much to Breguet's appreciation of physics and the manner in which variables such as position affect an instrument's ability to give accurate data.

While it would be almost impossible to list all of Abraham-Louis Breguet's horological achievements in the 77 years before his death in 1823, many, like the development of hand-worked, engine-turned dials are the cornerstone around which the Breguet name continues to prosper. First introduced in 1798 this technique for working metal dials gives the watchface a distinct diamond-shaped raised relief which adds both character and refinement to an already stylish appearance. To further enhance this stylishness M. Breguet also created what was to become a signature aesthetic feature for Breguet - the famed apple hands - sweeping arrow-point heads on tapering arms. These, coupled with the fluting on the case, have become marks of authenticity for the many collectors of Breguet watches - much like the watermark on a banknote.
"Breguet certainly was a master when it came to innovation and design", explains M. Bodet. "Not only did he turn his hand to perfecting the whole science of horology, but he realised the necessity for producing a product which had intrinsic value as a work of great craftsmanship". To this end, the forty master watchmakers employed by Breguet continue to handcraft every timepiece. Even the tiny links which make up the gold mesh which forms the band of one range of ladies wristwatches are individually assembled. "One watchmaker makes one watch. What he starts he finishes, no-one else touches it. This makes our watches even more exclusive and rare. When one wears a Breguet watch one wears the very history and heritage of Breguet. He was a very special craftsman".

Yet despite all the innovations and accolades the Breguet name was virtually unseen on the world market for many years after the founder's death, the brand passing out of family control to a series of owners who according to M. Bodet 'didn't understand what Breguet was really about'. Only after he was asked to look back through the Breguet records and study the archives did M. Bodet realise the largely unrealised potential inherent in what Abraham-Louis Breguet had established.

"That was in 1973" M. Bodet explains, "and I had been asked to find a style with which to really put the Breguet name back on the market. What I found was that what M. Breguet had done all those years ago was in fact just what the market wanted: style, elegance and of course incredible technological sophistication. Of course the pocket watches and clocks M. Breguet had started with were by then part of a much larger product range which included gents and ladies wristwatches. Today, I am pleased to say that we buy the rough movements from a select group of manufacturers, refine them to our needs and handmake all the mechanisms for the various functions and complications ourselves".

Apart from the obvious there are five distinctive features which set Breguet watches apart, features which are as synonymous with Breguet as is the discovery of the necessary mechanisms for taking a leap-year into account. Besides the distinctive fluting of the case and the engine-turned dials, there are the idiosyncratic hands and numerals dating from 1800, the 18-carat gold lugs and the buckle also made of solid 18-carat gold. It is these features which Breguet collectors look for when checking for the authenticity of their potential acquisition, acquisitions celebrated as works of art in their own right.

"As a jeweller myself with many years experience working with watches", adds M. Bodet, "I appreciated from the very outset the subtle blend of technical sophistication and artistic integrity that was immediately evident in what M. Breguet had initiated. When one considers that what he did two centuries ago continues to be implemented by watchmakers today, the impact of his genius is obvious. Breguet has a heart for what it does, and it harks back directly to the feeling inherent in the traditions M. Breguet himself instigated".

Although a slow and meticulous business which limits the number of timepieces produced in a year to about 2000, it is just this exacting attention to detail and the personalised manner in which every piece is created that has attracted a huge following for Breguet products. So much attention and satisfaction in fact that at the time of writing there was a standing order for more than one years worth of output. Rather than stockpile their products Breguet have a policy of making a large part of their range to order, with select distributors around the world catering to a very discerning clientele.

Even a casual perusal of a Breguet catalogue reveals wristwatches, pocket watches and clocks of exquisite beauty; from the elegantly clean lines of a simple white dial with a minimum of complications, to the brilliance of the diamond-studded dials with bands finished in emeralds and pearls.

Although credited with developing the worlds first tactile watch for the blind in 1796, a major academic and technological advance, Abraham-Louis Breguet was as concerned with the creation of timepieces which would be as pleasing to the eye as they were accurate for telling the time. As part of his endeavour to create timepieces which would endure, Breguet further developed the first shock absorber for watches. All this so that clients for his time-pieces - which have included Napoleon Bonaparte, the Royal House of Russia, Marie-Antoinette and much later Sir Winston Churchill and the Prince of Wales, could all be assured of owning a truly exceptional work of great craftsmanship.

Amongst the most successful Breguet timepieces are the Skeleton clocks whose intricately engraved inner mechanisms are visible through the face of the dial. Gold or silver mechanisms painstakingly hand-engraved by master Swiss craftsmen and often embellished with precious jewels, peep out from one corner of the dial or occupy the entire face, giving the watch an almost surreal appearance.

Where many lesser watchmakers were content to compensate their lack of technical precision with lavish decoration, Breguet was fundamentally more concerned with functionality than decoration. To this end even his earliest creations whilst aesthetically breathtaking, were first and foremost works of intricate technical detail comprising such revolutionary features as a separate seconds counter, moon phase analogs and even a power-reserve indicator to alert the owner to the amount of power left before the watch requires winding.

Just as Abraham-Louis Breguet's astute understanding of the importance of offering his influential clients both technical and aesthetic precision won him international acclaim in his day, this same philosophy embodies the brand that carries his name into the next century. Stylish elegance matched with peerless precision gives Breguet a distinctly unique place amongst the timepieces most sought after by both the avid horological collector and discerning client.

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