Montres Breguet: Excellence in Watchmaking
The House of Breguet honours its founder’s most important, desired and influential inventions in horology today via the dedicated Research and Development team who continue to make history with pioneering advances in watchmaking.
Dating back over two centuries ago, the balance-spring is just one of a handful of pioneering innovations Breguet holds to its name; the Dutch mathematician Huygens invented a variation of the balance-spring in 1675. This small spring, is responsible for the regulation of the oscillations of the balance. Huygens created a flat balance spring, but due to the elasticity, a degree of isochronism still left something to be desired. In 1795, Abraham-Louis Breguet solved this problem by upraising the spring’s last coil and reducing its curvature, to ensure the concentric development of the balance-spring.
The result, watches gained in precision and durability, thanks in part to Breguet’s perfection of a bimetallic compensation bar that cancelled out the effects of changes in temperature on the balance spring. Adopted by all the great watchmaking firms, who continue to use it to this day for high precision pieces, the Breguet balance-spring is a celebrated invention of the House. Between 1880 and 1910, many manufacturers inscribed the words “Spiral Breguet” or “Breguet overcoil” in large letters on the cuvettes of their watches.
In pursuit of their founder’s ambition for improving the precision and reliability of timepieces, the House of Breguet’s Research and Development team continue to pave the way in modern watchmaking.
In 2006, Breguet laid claim to a silicon balance-spring and silicon overcoil, chosen for its antimagnetic properties. Offering a lighter and more durable option to the traditional metal variations prone to the effects of gravity, silicon also greatly improved the resistance and watches ability to handle shocks, making for a more reliable timepiece.
Another celebrated feat for the Swiss watchmaker, is the remarkable introduction of High Frequency timepieces. Responsible for the rate of the watch. Increasing the oscillating frequency leads to improved precision and stability. The House of Breguet is responsible for progressing this frequency from 7,000 vibrations per hour to reach an astonishing 72,000 vibrations per hour or 10Hz.
While silicon components are hailed as a revolutionary material in watchmaking; it was under Breguet’s current President, Marc A. Hayek that the first watch equipped with a magnetic pivot was born.
Patented in 2010, Breguet established a new milestone in the history of watchmaking, exploiting the effects of magnetism to improve the precision and reliability of its timepieces.
The magnetic pivot is a mechanism made up of a carbon steel rod for the balance wheel and two “rare earth” magnets placed behind the pivot jewels. With a force stronger than gravity, this mechanism works independently to the positioning of the watch, so in the event of an impact causing the axis to move to one side, the magnetic forces almost instantly restore the axis to its correct position.
These technical achievements symbolising Breguet’s watchmaking excellence are what makes presenting partner Montres Breguet an exceptional watch manufacture in existence today.