Breguet

Abraham-Louis Breguet opened his Paris workshop in 1775. He made watches with new mechanisms and a recognizable appearance: fine hands, clearly separated indications and patterned metal dials. The inventions and the way they were displayed developed together. A complicated watch still had to tell its owner something.

The French Revolution interrupted the business. In 1793, Breguet left for Switzerland, where he remained for almost two years. Thomas Boulanger looked after the Paris workshop, corresponding with him and carrying out its daily work.

A surviving watch makes that arrangement concrete. Breguet's No. 5, now in the company's museum, was delivered in March 1794, while its designer was away. Boulanger handled the delivery. The business had not simply stopped until Breguet could return.

After returning in 1795, Breguet pursued both technical invention and new ways of selling watches. His subscription watches required a quarter of the price when ordered. They used a comparatively simple mechanism and one hand, an unusually direct alternative to his more complicated work.

In 1801 he patented the tourbillon, which rotates the balance and escapement to average the effect of gravity in different vertical positions. It was a response to the way pocket watches were carried, rather than decoration added to the dial.