Of the Swiss watch industry’s cavalcade of eminent last names, Emmanuel Breguet was probably given the most formidable yet daunting one. To be the seventh generation descendent of Abraham-Louis Breguet comes with certain expectations, that is practically a given. But unlike his great-great-great-great-grandfather (there are four greats) and his son and grandson after him, Emmanuel Breguet isn’t a watchmaker and is therefore unlikely to prove himself in quite the same way. Indeed, the Breguet family had stepped away from horology at one point, when Emmanuel Breguet’s grandfather Louis Charles Breguet who was an aviation pioneer founded Breguet Aviation in 1911, thereafter opening up wonderful opportunities for the Breguet name in aviation timepieces.

And no, Emmanuel Breguet is not a part of the aviation industry either — which was a fact mirthfully pointed out by the man himself as he shared a self-deprecating jab at his own generation’s modest (in comparison) contributions to either watchmaking or aviation history. That’s just the thing about being born a Breguet, isn’t it? How does one even dream of touching those dizzying heights scaled by AL Breguet, inventor of the tourbillon and father of modern watchmaking, or the incredible achievements of Louis Charles Breguet whose life’s work contributed immensely to aviation and ultimately gave France its national carrier?

Yet Emmanuel Breguet’s role with the company today is truly more pertinent than ever. The long, meandering evolution of the company continuously turn up new fascinating information about its almost 250-year-long history, and Emmanuel Breguet has made it his life’s mission to research, document and communicate the great work his forebears had done. As the vice president and head of patrimony of Montres Breguet today, he commits fully to building and reorganizing the Breguet heritage, spending his time delving into archival documents and assisting some of the world’s leading art, science and technology, and maritime museums in the curation of Breguet timepieces. He also joins Breguet exhibitions and events all around the world, meeting watch enthusiasts to share insights about the art and style of Breguet watchmaking.

At a recent event in Singapore, we enjoyed an engaging presentation of Breguet’s most significant contributions to modern watchmaking, and sat down with Emmanuel Breguet to discover even more.

In the wristwatch era today, we still see many references to what Breguet had started during his time, whether it is a technical invention or a stylistic element. Why do you think Breguet continues to be so influential across the entire industry?

When I started my research on Breguet, I immediately realized how Breguet impacted watchmaking in terms of design. And I immediately realized how quickly Breguet influenced the entire profession. I think he is like an artist. He has very accurate eyes. I’m sure he saw the architecture in Europe was changing, the furniture was changing, everything was changing but not watchmaking. Watchmaking continued to stay in the baroque age with heavy shapes and heavy decoration. So Breguet felt he had to change and to push watchmaking into the neo-classical age. Breguet wanted to simplify everything. He removed all the decoration on the dial, removed all the decoration on the case, he removed so many things. And your question is interesting. Why? We saw how quickly that Breguet codes became watchmaking codes and stayed the watchmaking codes until today. And not only for us [Breguet company]. All the clocks and more or less all the watches, except some contemporary watches made by independent watches, is crafted according to Breguet codes until today. It’s because he was a genius.

Exactly. A before and an after. Breguet introduced many things to watchmaking because he introduced high complications in watches. We had already high complication mantle clocks and decorative clocks but not in the small space of pocket watches. He started to add a moon phase, date, etc, and always with legibility and elegance. The genius of Breguet is to match together legibility, something useful, so utility, and elegance. Also it takes a genius to do that because he had to solve many technical questions before this could be done.

Probably yes. In the sense he was a contemporary artist. The word designer did not exist at the time. But artist, aesthetic, drawing… and I consider Breguet as a true artist. Because each enamel or guilloché dial was a white page for a new design. More or less, he never made two identical watches. Each time he needed to do something new. He refused to be specialized in some products. He wanted to explore all the facets of watchmaking. I found some letters of bankers, of friends of Breguet, who’d said to him, “My dear Breguet, you do too many different, please be careful. You have to produce some repeating watches, some tact watches, some simple watches, and some travel clocks, and that’s it. Stop exploring so many things. Be concentrated on some key pieces and you could be rich.” And Breguet refused.

If you spoke about Breguet today, it’s because Breguet explored all the facets of watchmaking, and refused to do an easy work. Easy work consisted of producing only five categories of pieces and making them in a mass series production. He refused until the end of his life. He experimented new revolution with watches with two movements, resonance, the first chronograph, the first split second chronograph. And he was also very modern and innovative in terms of communication.

I can give you two examples. At the end of the French Revolution when he went back to Paris after two years in Switzerland, he made a new product to relaunch his company. It was a subscription watch, a very simple one, and the customer is asked to pay one quarter when he ordered it. This is the meaning of the word subscription. And to promote the subscription watch, he published a printed flyer, which is, to my knowledge, the first advertising document in the history of watchmaking. And 20 years later, he was an old man, he continued to work, and he published an illustrated catalog of all his production, and it was the first catalog in the watchmaking industry.

He was also modern in terms of communication for the watch, when he sold the watch. The watch was presented in a beautiful small box with a piece of paper and the invoice. On it was a very precise description of the watch, detailing all the complications and the way to use the complication. It was the instructions guide. And for some complicated watches, he added some explanation for the watchmaker who will eventually service the watch 20 years later, perhaps in a foreign country. This is the beginning of what we call today customer service or customer care.

He is a genius in terms of design, he is a genius in terms of technique, yes we know that, everybody knows that. But what was interesting for me was how he promoted his product not just in Paris, but London, Madrid, Istanbul, Vienna, Berlin… How? I found some answers and I wrote in the Breguet book a very big chapter on Breguet’s network because it’s fascinating to see the international development of the brand. Breguet was simultaneously the watchmaker of King of England, Tsar of Russia, the university in Russia who needed to have precise instruments to measure temperature and many other things. The astronomers… He was the provider to the observatory of Napoli, of Firenze, etc. It’s a network and the way to be known in so many different countries without modern means of communication, for me it’s very interesting.

We saw how quickly that Breguet codes became watchmaking codes and stayed the watchmaking codes until today. And not only for us [Breguet company].

I pay tribute to Patek Philippe because in the Patek Philippe catalogs, it is mentioned with Breguet hands. And I pay tribute to them because it’s very honest from them. I appreciate that, and I appreciate the Patek Philippe museum too. Because the museum is about the Patek Philippe brand from the beginning of its history, but before the foundation of the brand, it was about watchmaking and the part of Breguet in the museum shows how important Breguet was in modern watchmaking. Very good and very smart from Patek Philippe to show so many Breguet pieces in the museum.

And the success of the tourbillon today.

Exactly. It’s not “useful” but it’s a beauty and success of the tourbillon is just incredible.

After, nobody was able to make a tourbillon. Because the tourbillon has a very long and difficult history. Between the idea of the tourbillon and the patent, it was six years of work for Breguet. And between the patent in 1801 and the sale of the first tourbillon, it was again six years. In 20 years, 25 years, he sold only 30-35 tourbillons because it was extremely difficult to produce. But he was optimistic always, and he was sure to put the tourbillon in every watch. In 1811 only five or six tourbillons had been completed, and nobody else had the idea to do such a crazy thing. Breguet produced one or two tourbillons every 20 years all along the 19th century and the first half from 20^th century. Then suddenly, from an idea in around 1985 to put a tourbillon on a wristwatch, it exploded in popularity.

The spirit of watchmaking, and the spirit of the 18th century and the Age of Enlightenment. I worked on the meaning of the words chosen by Breguet to define his invention. He invents something, he would have to find the word for it to be called from day one.

Today tourbillon means rotation of wind, rotation of water, of a very agitated and complicated human life… for me it’s not that. I investigated in all the dictionaries, and I found the real meaning of tourbillon in the time of AL Breguet. It was synonymous of the planet and the solar system.

Yes, rotation of planet, tourbillon. It’s a system of planets or an object that rotates around something. Tourbillon symbolized the world and the miniaturization of the world. During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers was very interested in watchmaking because for them, the watchmaker was able to build a very small world in a very small space. For me, the tourbillon is a symbol of the our universe, of the universe.

Don’t forget, it was introduced to average out the effects of the gravity and to improve accuracy. Yes, it’s a symbol of universe, but for Breguet, it was something useful. But at the same time, Breguet continued to investigate in many, many different directions and found some much more simple improvements of some escapements, or some oils to provide also better accuracy. But the tourbillon is the tourbillon, and this is something very special indeed.

Because watchmaking is a meeting of two different worlds. It’s true for watch. It’s true, obviously, for a clock. It belongs to two different worlds: of sciences and techniques, and that of the decorative arts. When I look at my watch which is inspired by a pocket watch with exactly the same design and the same position of different indicator, this part belongs to the decorative parts while the movement belong to the world of science. Watchmaking is the fusion of these two different worlds, and it’s unique. If you are a painter, you are a painter, it is an art. It’s the same for the sculpture, it’s the same for architecture. But in watchmaking, typically something you have to excel in these two different worlds. So that’s why it’s difficult for most people. But not for Breguet.

Exactly.

Today we are eager to continue the metiers d’arts but not to copy everything. We don’t copy. Sometimes, visitors to the Breguet Museum see a beautiful watch and request us to make them the same. No, we don’t do replicas. It’s not interesting. We are inspired, but we don’t replicate. It’s not interesting.

He was revolutionary. I’m sure sometimes what he did was shocking for the contemporary. You used the word maverick, and I agree, he was kind of a maverick, and he didn’t hesitate to shock and to do everything different, but always with this sense of elegance. Everybody very quickly adopted the Breguet codes. He was a maverick, but everybody responded very positively to the change he brings.

The second part of 19th century was the beginning of series production for Breguet, but sometimes the house continued to do some unique pieces with the old Breguet codes. Thereafter, the Brown family further developed the production of the travel clocks invented by Breguet. The Brown family understood the future of the travel clock, and the travel clock became very popular between the years 1880s until the First World War. Every family had one of those five-glass travel clocks. Another merit of the Brown family was to continue to produce some tourbillons. And they made some very interesting things in terms of design during the Art Deco period. I’d bought for the Breguet museum some very interesting pieces, featuring rotating dial, no hand, jumping hour, mainly pocket watch, but also some wristwatches.

Yes, a part of the department of decorative arts in the Louvre. The National Marine Museum in Paris as well. We have also a room sponsored by Breguet. One of my jobs is to keep Breguet active in the cultural field, because we belong to the world of the culture, we’re not only a watch brand. We belong to the history of arts.

Yes, at the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. I have a list of museums around the world that exhibit Breguet timepieces. Each year I discovered new museums around the world, America, South America, Eastern Europe… so many museums keep our Breguet patrimony. This year, until September 2024 there is a tribute to Breguet in the Science Museum in London. It is a spontaneous initiative by the museum to mark the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of the death of Breguet.

In my role, I have the opportunity to travel, and I love to speak with journalists as well as final customers, and especially with the younger generation. Recently in China, I spoke with a group of young people who’d just started to become watch collectors, they love the authenticity in our history, and they love Breguet, because Breguet is not marketing but a huge page of the history of humanity, of science, technique, arts. The young generation has not the same culture as us, as our parents and our grandparents, but they are very happy to know, and they are eager to discover more about the history, and are very interested in history. The young generation is understanding that when you buy Breguet, you don’t buy just a watch. You buy a piece of history of the humanity. To discover and to know more about the brand. For me, it’s fantastic.