Breguet Watches

Founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, Breguet is a luxury watch brand with a vibrant history. This Swiss watch brand named after its creator is famous for the invention of the tourbillon, which has made it an influential brand in watchmaking history.

The first automatically wound watch, The Perpétuelle, was developed in 1780, shortly after Breguet’s debut in 1775. Breguet introduced the Gong-spring in 1783, which paved the way for minute repeater watches in the 19th century. Breguet also introduced its peculiar “moon tip” hands in 1783, which contrasted with the Baroque design of the era.

Breguet introduced the guilloche dial decoration technique in 1786. However, its most significant contribution came in 1801, when the brand’s founder came up with the tourbillon. Even today, this gravity-defying mechanism remains a fundamental part of Swiss watchmaking and will continue to influence it for many years to come.

The firm changed its name to “Breguet et Fils” (Breguet and sons) when Abraham-Louis Breguet brought his son Louis-Antoine Breguet into the business in 1807. In 1823, when his father passed away, Louis-Antoine took over and eventually passed Breguet on to his son, Louis Clément Francois, when he retired in 1833. 

After Louis Antonie, the great-grandson of Abraham Louis, retired in 1870, Edward Brown, an English watchmaker, took over Breguet. From 1870 to 1970, the Brown family ran the company. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the quartz crisis hit, ownership of the company changed several times. In the interim, the company closed its French factory and moved the production to Valleé de Joux, Switzerland, where it remains today under the ownership of the Swatch Group.