9’’’ circular movement, damascened Geneva striped decoration, lever escapement, jewelled to the centre, jewelled lever pallets, 17 jewels, bi-metallic compensation balance, blued steel hairspring with Breguet overcoil, index regulator, barrel bridge signed and numbered Breguet 1675

pink gilded dial, satin finished silvered chapter ring for hours with blue enamel baton hour indexes, matt grained silvered minute track with blue enamel calibrations, white hands with squared tips, white enamel cubistes Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock, signed and numbered Breguet 1675, inside case numbered 675 & 1675, French eagle’s head assay mark, indistinct maker’s lozenge stamp

18ct white gold rectangular case, broad brancards with angled ends, crenelated lugs of alternating pink and white gold ridges, screw-set bar lugs, satin finished white gold square case back with inner yellow gold framework to support movement, case back exterior signed and numbered Breguet 1675

Measurements

length 36mm

width 23mm

depth including crystal 6mm

weight including strap 29g

Accompaniments

with a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate

Monsieur Petit

Antiquorum Geneva, The Art of Breguet, 14 April 1991, lot 160.

Sotheby’s New York, 13 June 2007, lot 32

Barter, A., Schnipper, D., 500 Years | 100 Watches, London: Prestel, 2019, pp. 208-209.

At a time when many wristwatches were still largely utilitarian in design, this charismatic example hinted at the aesthetic possibilities the new era of the wristwatch was beginning to herald. The growing demand for wristwatches during the second half of the 1910s and the early 1920s coincided with the Art Deco period, an era that transformed watch design more generally.

Made in 1926, this is an unusual and striking early wristwatch that embraces the latest fashion for combining multiple colours and contrasting tones within both case and dial. The case employs two colours of gold, creating an alternating crenellation of pink and white gold between the lugs, while two strips of polished white gold frame the sides. This contrasting scheme continues on the dial, which features a pink-gilded metallic ground with a silvered chapter ring. The larger Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock are filled with white enamel, while the minute and hour calibrations which have been engraved into the dial plate are inlaid with blue enamel in a tone as rich as lapis lazuli. The hands are painted white for increased legibility.

Although reflecting the fashionable Art Deco aesthetic, this avant-garde watch appears to have been somewhat ahead of its time, remaining unsold until September 1941, when it was purchased by a Monsieur Petit for 12,500 French Francs.

The watch was created during the years when Breguet was owned by the Brown family. Having purchased the firm in 1870, successive generations of the Browns guided Breguet through much of the 20th century. During the inter-war years, when only a small number of pieces were produced, the firm created some of its most innovative and imaginative 20th century watches.