Breguet's first wristwatch – the customer is a woman!

Text: Britta Rossander

On 8 June 1810 Caroline Murat, little sister of Napoleon I, placed an unusual order with Abraham-Louis Breguet in his watchmaking workshop on Quai de l’Horloge in Paris. She had been a customer for the past five years, having already at the age of 23 ordered her first watch from Breguet.

The new order read, according to Breguet's register:

”Watch no. 2639, a ”repeater with thermometer in an oval case for a bracelet”.

The case was to be made so that it could be attached to a bracelet, which was very original for the time. It took seventeen craftsmen two and a half years to complete the movement. The price invoiced in 1811 was, according to Breguet's register, 2 037 francs. Delivery took place the following year on 21 December, and by then the case and the box had been added, so the final price is said to have come to 4 800 francs. In the red calfskin box there then lay a watch with a case in gold, which was unusually thin, with a dial in silver decorated with engraving in guilloché technique. The numerals were Arabic and the bracelet was braided from strands of hair and gold threads.

One of the first watch enthusiasts

There are no portraits showing her wearing the watch described, but the queen of Naples must have been pleased with her purchase since up until 1815 she went on to order a total of 34 watches. Besides being Breguet's greatest patron. Was she also the one in the Bonaparte family who owned the most watches from his workshop. Interesting is that within the family there are said to have been about a hundred. Caroline Murat's collection also contained a number of thermometers and barometers. When I spoke wit Emanuel Breguet (deputy CEO and historian) it came creeping out that perhaps there could be a book about the Bonaparte family's collected Breguet watches.

The oval wristwatch was inherited by Caroline's daughter Louise Murat, countess Rasponi, who took it to Breguet for repair in 1849. The watch was registered for the last time in 1855 when she ordered new keys. After that it disappeared without a trace.

The hunt for the watch

In 2002, three years after Breguet became part of the Swatch Group, Nicolas Hayek, owner and chairman of the board of the group, initiated a watch for women inspired by Caroline Murat's watch. Only the description remained at that point. The drawings have to this day not been found. With Nick Hayek's delight in both the watch and the story, a refined beauty ”Reine de Naples” was born, which today is a whole collection.

Reine de Napels is one of the watch industry's most beloved ladies' watches. To my mind the model is the most beautiful evening watch when it is made in yellow gold with diamonds around the case and a large diamond in the crown. To this comes also a mother-of-pearl dial, a black grosgrain strap and a pair of diamonds on the clasp.

Magic of a Vibrant Heart

The latest variant of Reine da Napels, Magic of a Vibrant Heart, represents eternal love. It is made with a pulsating heart that shows the time instead of traditional hands. The heart's whose tip shows minutes has thin sides that change shape. The curves expand and contract, which makes it a little hypnotic to look at. Rather like when you stare at a gyrotourbillon where the hours are shown in the middle of the dial. The construction is an unexpected combination of romance and technology.

The case in rose gold has a full wreath of diamonds and in the crown sits a cabochon-cut ruby of 0,25 ct. The strap is in vermillion red (the red colour Rembrant usually used) leather and the watch is delivered not in an ordinary box but in a clutch in leather in the same colour as the strap. Only 28 examples will be made of the Reine de Napels Magic of a Vibrant Heart.