lever escapement, three-arm plain balance mounted to the backplate, spiral steel balance spring with Breguet overcoil, compensation curb and regulating index, parachute suspension, Breguet à rouleaux calendar work, two brass hammers, one for repeat, the other for alarm sounding on a bell mounted to backplate

silver engine-turned dial, clou de Paris guilloché decoration, satin finished chapter rings for hours with Roman numerals and pearled minutes, crémaillère borders, blued steel Breguet hands, inner ring for alarm time with corresponding central gold indicating hand, large aperture for moon phases, the blued disc decorated with gold stars and moon with pointed tip, gilt-metal dial panel further decorated with clou de Paris guilloché decoration and having linear apertures for day, date and month, year displayed within polished shield-shaped cartouche with winding square above, off-set polished oval plaque with apertures for adjusting alarm and time, two further polished plaques signed and numbered Breguet et Fils, No. 2607

gilt-bronze neoclassical decorated case, top with four ball finials and folding bar-and-tassel handle pivoted between a pair of lion’s head pommels, pilasters to all sides each with doric-form capitals surmounted by an acanthus leaf rosette panel and joined to one another by a pediment of neoclassical continuously scrolling acanthus leaves formed around central rosettes, the base decorated ensuite, engine-turned bun feet, hinged front and back doors, bevelled glass panels to all sides

Measurements

height 120mm

width 84mm

depth 63mm

weight 1591.8g

Accompaniments

with a fitted morocco leather travelling case, the hinged front with sliding observation panel, recess for later key to base and a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate

Purchased from George Brown at Breguet in July 1960.

Musée International d’Horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1976, Vitrine 11, No. 2.

Breguet, C., A. L. Breguet Horloger, Ramsgate: Thanet Printing Works, 1961, p. 24.

Daniels, George, The Art of Breguet, London & New York: Sotheby Parke, Bernet, 1975, p. 220, figs. 232a-b.

In his book Carriage Clocks, Charles Allix observes: “It is not surprising that his [Breguet’s] pendules de voyage were both the first and best ever made in France.”1 Conceived for the affluent traveller of the early 19th century, Breguet’s pendules de voyage were not only luxurious objects and statements of their owner’s wealth, but also instruments of remarkable practicality, utility, and elegance.

Measuring just 120 mm in height, this pendule de voyage is highly portable. In addition to the time and alarm displays, the dial provides a full calendar and the age and phase of the moon. During the hours of darkness when the dial could not be easily read, a pusher at the top of the case could be depressed to strike the time to the nearest quarter on a bell mounted to the movement’s backplate. The alarm is indicated on the dial in a counter-clockwise direction and set for the number of hours of sleep desired rather than for the time of waking. It sounds on the same bell as the repeating mechanism.

Such clocks were not only supremely practical for travel by coach, but also provided an elegant and useful companion when staying in temporary lodgings or as the guest of a distinguished host. The moon-phase disc is unusually large and decorative, its presence signalling both mechanical sophistication and horological prestige. In the early 19th century, the indication of the moon’s age and phase retained genuine practical importance. Above all, it governed the feasibility of travel at night, when in rural areas the presence or absence of moonlight could determine both the safety and ease of a journey. Beyond this, lunar indications remained vital for calculating tides in coastal navigation, for regulating agricultural cycles of planting and harvest, and for fixing the dates of numerous religious observances across Europe and the Middle East.

The first carriage clock recorded in the Breguet Archives is no. 178, sold to Général Bonaparte on 24 April 1798. Sequentially the next pendule de voyage is no. 179 which can be closely compared with the present clock; it was sold to S. M. François de Bourbon, King of Naples, in 1804 for Fr. 4,000 (see: The Art of Breguet, p. 164, figs. 115a–d). Two further very similar pendules de voyage are nos. 2644 and 2678, each, like the present clock, also sold in 1811. The former is in a private collection (illustrated in Breguet – Watchmakers since 1775, p. 243, fig. 284), while the latter, no. 2678, was bequeathed by Winthrop Kellogg Edey to The Frick Collection, New York.

Like nos. 179, 2644 and 2678, this clock, no. 2607, is designed and decorated in the Empire style, which flourished in France during the reign of Napoleon I (1804–1815). The Empire style was the dominant expression of neoclassicism in the early nineteenth century. Drawing inspiration above all from the art and architecture of ancient Rome, enriched by elements of Greek classicism and by the renewed fascination with ancient Egypt that followed Napoleon’s campaign (1798-1801) and the publication of the Description de l’Égypte, it combined monumental forms with rich decorative detail. Characteristic motifs included laurel wreaths, palmettes, rosettes, acanthus scrolls, and classical figures, often paired with eagles, lions, sphinxes, obelisks, and other emblems of power. In the decorative arts, the style was distinguished by the use of gilt bronze, finely chased ornament, and symmetrical arrangements that conveyed grandeur and authority. Though originating in France, the Empire style spread widely across Europe, influencing furniture, jewellery, metalwork, and horology, where its bold yet refined aesthetic became a hallmark of Napoleonic taste.

Breguet’s pendules de voyage may be regarded as the archetype from which the later French carriage clock ultimately derived. Yet they occupy a category entirely their own: conceived with a refinement of proportion, complexity of mechanism, and quality of finish far surpassing the generic carriage clocks that proliferated later in the nineteenth century. While a handful of subsequent makers succeeded in approaching something of their elegance and mechanical subtlety, Breguet’s creations set a standard of travelling clock that was admired and emulated, but never truly surpassed.

1 Allix, Charles, Carriage Clocks, Their History and Development, Woodbridge: ACC, 1974, p. 37.