An important and exceptionally rare gold self-winding minute repeating lever watch, the hours and quarters repeating à toc, the minutes on a gong, with 60-hour state of wind indication, constructed on the principles of Garde-Temps

George John Spencer, 2^nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834)

22 December 1802 returned to Breguet in Paris for repair (probably via Recordon)

c. 20 June 1803 returned to London via Miss Recordon for Louis Recordon, Breguet’s London agent.

Reparied by E. Dent of Pall Mall in 1969 for £65.

…

Professor Thomas Engel

Engel, Thomas, A. L. Breguet, Watchmaker to Kings, 1994, pp. 88-89.

An exceptionally rare perpétuelle watch, this is an important early work by the great master that not only retains its original enamel dial, but in addition to its lever escapement with Arnold-style balance and early parachute shock protection, also incorporates minute repetition. Beyond its horological significance, it carries a fascinating provenance, stretching from George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), to Professor Thomas Engel, one of Breguet’s most passionate collectors.

The Breguet Archives do not contain records before 1787 and so it is not possible to be certain when the first perpétuelle watches were made. Emmanuel Breguet’s own research has shown that Breguet’s version of the self-winding watch was developed between 1775 and 1779.¹ Breguet claimed himself that by 1780 Marie Antoinette and the Duc d’Orléans were both in possession of such a watch. Watch No. 2 10/82 is the earliest now known and is believed to have been owned by Marie Antoinette, its fractional number indicating a date of completion in October 1782.² Early Perpétuelles were fitted with distinctive white enamel dials, their finely painted Arabic hour indexes were complimented by delicate minute rings, subsidiary seconds and an up-and-down sector showing the watch’s state of wind.

Not all perpétuelles were completed in order, with some occasionally started and finished years apart. Many had their dials replaced, either due to damage or to modernise their appearance. Perpétuelles were always extremely expensive and Breguet was keen to re-purchase them whenever the opportunity arose. Updating these watches with the newly fashionable guilloché enamel dials for which Breguet had become so well-known was therefore not uncommon in the 19^th century. It is extremely rare to find early perpétuelles that retain their original enamel dials.

Breguet was one of the few watchmakers to exploit the lever escapement at this early date. Its inventor, Thomas Mudge, had himself noted that to successfully produce the lever escapement “requires a delicacy in the execution that you will find very few artists equal to.”³ It is in this watch that the finesse of Breguet’s interpretation of the lever escapement may be appreciated. Here one may also find an early example of his parachute protection — a safety device designed to guard the balance staff against shock, originally developed for his perpétuelles to mitigate the vibrations caused by the heavy platinum weight as it buffered against its limiting springs.  

Although Breguet made a large number of repeating watches in a variety of different forms, those with minute repetition are extremely rare. A most novel and unusual combination, the hours and quarters are repeated à toc by a single hammer striking a block to the inside of the case band by 3 o’clock. By contrast, the minutes are struck by a separate hammer on a short flat steel gong. There is continued debate as to the invention of the gong-form of repeat but as Daniels notes in The Art of Breguet, “If Breguet did invent the gong it was in this form and probably before 1783.”⁴ 

The fractional number of the present watch shows that it was completed in June 1787. It does not appear in Breguet’s sales books (which began during 1787) but it does appear in the repairs register. The entry in the Breguet registre de rhabillage is dated 1 Nivose An XI (22 December 1802) and records that the watch’s owner was Lord Spencer. The repairs undertaken between 1802 and 1803 included: “arbre de barillet, roue de remontoir, pont de barillet, grand ressort de masse, une partie des vis, une roue à rochet.” (work carried out on the barrel arbor, the winding wheel, the large mass spring etc). These repairs were completed around 20 June 1803 (beginning of Messidor) for Fr. 360, after which the watch was returned to London via Miss Recordon, who delivered the watch to her father, Breguet’s London agent, Louis Recordon.

For a perpétuelle with similar Arnold-type balance, see Daniels, George, The Art of Breguet, 1975, p. 115 pl. 20 & 21 and for another minute repeating perpétuelle, see op. cit. p. 210, figs. 211 a-c.

George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834)

George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), was a leading Whig statesman, philanthropist, and the foremost English bibliophile of his age. Born at Wimbledon Park, the only son of the 1st Earl Spencer (1734–1783) and Georgiana Poyntz, he was educated by Sir William Jones before attending Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered Parliament as Viscount Althorp before succeeding his father as Earl Spencer in 1783.

In politics, Spencer served as First Lord of the Admiralty (1794–1801), where his appointments of Jervis, Duncan, and Nelson contributed directly to the victories of St Vincent, Camperdown, and the Nile. He handled the naval mutinies of 1797 with firmness and tact, personally negotiating at Spithead and confronting sedition at the Nore. Briefly Home Secretary in 1806–7, he later retired from national politics to concentrate on philanthropy and county affairs in Northamptonshire.

Lord Spencer was home secretary during the Grenville/Fox coalition, the so-called “Ministry of All the Talents” from 1806-1807. Part of his commission was to investigate the conduct of Caroline Princess of Wales whose daughter, the Countess of Flahault (née Margaret Mercer Elphinstone) is also featured in this auction through her own Breguet watch no. 338 (see lot 64).

Though Spencer’s view of France was hardened by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, it did not stop him (or many of his contemporaries) from seeking out the craftsmanship of the great Breguet in Paris. Politically, he was sceptical of French intentions, and in 1802 he was among just sixteen peers who spoke and voted in the House of Lords against the Peace of Amiens, believing it an unsound and temporary settlement.⁵ Yet ironically it was precisely this fragile interlude of peace which allowed him to send this Breguet watch back to Paris for repair on 22 December 1802, probably via Breguet’s London agent, Louis Recordon. Britain declared war on France on 18 May 1803, ending the Treaty of Amiens, but the watch was safely returned to London shortly afterwards via Recordon’s daughter.

His greatest distinction lay in his library at Althorp, which, expanded by major purchases such as Count Reviczky’s collection, grew to over 40,000 volumes and became the nucleus of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. A founder and the first President of the Roxburghe Club, he was regarded as the greatest collector of early printed books in Europe.

Spencer’s wife, Lady Lavinia Bingham (1762–1831), was a celebrated society hostess, and together they regularly entertained leading figures of the day at Althorp and at Spencer House in London. They had eight children, among them John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer, and Father Ignatius Spencer. Through this line the 2nd Earl was a direct ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, while his first cousin, George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, was the great-great-great grandfather of Winston Churchill.

Thomas Engel (1927–2015)

Professor Thomas Engel was a German inventor and industrial chemist, internationally recognised for his pioneering work on polymers. In 1966 he developed a commercial process for cross-linking plastic extrusion, making a significant step forward in plastics technology and, in 1972, he won the Diesel price, which he shared with Wernher von Braun.

Engel’s passion for horology began in the 1960s when a friend produced a Breguet repeating watch during a car journey. Its chime captivated him, and soon afterwards he bought a copy of Sir David Salomons’s book on Breguet — “from that moment I was hooked,” he recalled. Over the following decades he built a distinguished collection, with Breguet at its centre, and was known for his insistence on originality and quality. His admiration for Breguet extended beyond collecting: in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Richard Daners, he created a series of finely executed “Engel Breguets” after the master’s style, now valued as collectors’ pieces in their own right.

A prolific writer, Engel published an important work dedicated to the work of Breguet titled A.L. Breguet, Watchmaker to Kings. He also pursued ambitious plans to establish an “Engel Time Museum” to share his collection with the public, though the project was never realised. Remembered as one of Breguet’s most ardent modern admirers, Engel united the perspectives of scientist, collector, and maker in a way that ensured his name would remain closely associated with the legacy of Abraham-Louis Breguet.

¹ Breguet, Emmanuel, Breguet Watchmakers since 1775, Revised and Expanded Edition, Swan Éditeur, 2016, p. 32.

² Daniels, George, The Art of Breguet, London & New York: Sotheby Parke, Bernet, 1975, pp. 63-66 and for no. 8

 see p. 139, figs. 67a–c.

³ Extract from a letter written by Thomas Mudge to his patron Count von Brühl in August 1776 and recounted in Good, The First Lever Watch made by Thomas Mudge, pp. 33-35.

⁴ Daniels, George, The Art of Breguet, London & New York: Sotheby Parke, Bernet, 1975, p. 66.

⁵ Lester, M.  (2008, January 03). Spencer, George John, second Earl Spencer (1758–1834), politician and book collector. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/26125