Description: Brass and steel ‘ebauche’ or unfinished movement of an 8 day box -or marine chronometer (65mm diameter). Double barrel with central uncut and inverted fusee. Drilled holes for pinions and bridge mountings, but all bridges and wheel work absent. Oversized, uncut winding square and barrel pinions. Backplate secured by screws, one of which with lacking screw head. Top plate engraved with production number ‘2749’. It would have had an Earnshaw spring detent escapement.
Provenance: Ex. George Brown, thence by decent
Additional Info:
Abraham – Louis Breguet has been appointed ‘Horloger de la Marine’ in 1815, after the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte, who refused this honor to Breguet. Before that year Breguet does not seem to have worked much on marine chronometers. From 1808 to 1815 Breguet experimented with several escapement types. Only three marine chronometers by him made before 1815 are known. Of these three, No.106, seems to have many parallels to the piece shown here. The principle of using two barrels with a central fusee was abandoned for a double going barrel variant or a single barrel with fusee variant. The production of latter pieces started towards 1814 with the production of a new escapement of Breguet’s design. By 1818 the production of marine chronometers for the French marine department increased, but compared with the English manufacturers not many pieces were made.
Ref.: Daniels G., The Art of Breguet, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 1974, P. 157, Pic. 103 a,b; No. 106, 3rd series, 1805
Ref.: Chayette H., Sabrier J.-C., Turner A., Breguet chez Chayette, Roger Turner Books, 2010, P. 155, Lot. 127 (drawing by Breguet)
Antiquarian Horology 