BREGUET ET FILS | A FINE SILVER "GARDE-TEMPS" POCKET CHRONOMETERBEGUN IN 1823 AND COMPLETED IN 1831, NO.4196

• Movement: gilt-brass three-quarter plate, Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement, bi-metallic compensation balance with large timing screws and parachute suspension, blued steel helical spring, winding square with pipe, going barrel, signed Breguet et Fils, Hgers de la Marine Royale, no.4196, frosted gilt-metal cuvette with winding aperture, signed Breguet Horger de la Marine Royale. no.4196• Dial: silver, two overlapping large dials for time with subsidiary seconds beneath, blued steel hands, signed Breguet et Fils, No.4196• Case: plain silver, gold hinges, case maker's mark LJ (Louis Joly), signed and numbered B, 4196, additionally numbered 525 

The present lot was begun in 1823 and finished in 1831.  However it remained in Breguet's inventory until circa 1857.  The certificate for Breguet dated 26 August 2019 mentions the sale after 1857. Breguet was appointed “Horloger de la Marine Royale” in 1815, filling a post that had remained vacant since the death of Louis Berthoud two years earlier. Although Breguet had experimented with pocket chronometers as early as 1789, it was after Breguet’s son, Antoine-Louis (1776-1858) had been taken into partnership in 1801 that the development of the firm’s chronometers began in earnest. Abraham-Louis Breguet felt that there was an inherent flaw with the fusee and chain system and developed his own going-barrel form of chronometer movement. This system was developed on the principle of two going barrels, however, examples of the company’s chronometers with a single going barrel, such as found in the present watch, are also known. The present lot also demonstrates how Breguet’s parachute ‘shock protection’ device was incorporated into some of the firm’s chronometer watches in order to protect the balance pivot – an especially useful feature for a precision timekeeper intended for use at sea.