Abraham-Louis Breguet was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland where he started honing his skills at the age of 15. The craftsmanship in clock-making runs in the blood of Breguet. He founded a precision watch industry in the mountains of Neuchâtel. His talent was even more polished under the apprenticeship of a master watchmaker, Versailles. And it was in the year 1775 when Breguet moved to Paris and set up his own crafts. He started making tools which he learned from his father, who was a renowned toolmaker. He come up with his invention of rounding-up tools, anti-shock device, overcoil balance spring, retrograde display mechanism, and other tools. The elite societies have recognized Breguet for his innovative inventions.
In the early years, Breguet focused his career on the development of watch. His first major contribution was the automatic rotor or perpetuelle watch. It features two going barrels with an oscillating weight. This watch runs in years without moving slow because of its self-winding back feature. Breguet also made a touch recognizable tact watches. But of the many watches he made, the Breguet turbillon got the most fame in the watch-making industry. This watch has made the entire watch mechanism reset in order to compensate for errors.
Breguet craftsmanship did not only focus on making watches. Most of the watches sold then comes with a clock. And so Breguet who is known for his brilliant mind also made his mark in the development of antique clocks. He entered the clock-making industry and made his first inventions, the guilloche dials and gong spring. He also adopted and improved the different escapement methods in clock-making.
In 1975, Breguet invented the sympathique clock or often referred to as a perpetual calendar. A sympathetic pendulum is house within the clock and its mechanism resets in a special clock. Breguet excelled in clock-making, and the elite societies have recognized his skills. In fact, the carriage clocks that are said to be his invention have brought him to fame. The four viewable sides, portable and light weight features of these collectible clocks added to its aesthetic appeal.
However, Breguet antique clocks are rare to find since he focused more on watches. Some of the famous carriage clocks of Breguet were sold to prominent personalities. Breguet's Pendule de Voyage clock was sold to Colonel Cook while the Empire Ormolu carriage clock was sold to Lord Gower.
Despite his gifted talent in designing, Breguet still worked on some of his clocks with different artisans. The success of endule Pyramidale and Muses resulted from his collaboration with Parisian silversmith Louis Legay and bronze caster Pierre-Philippe Thomire and Nicolas DelaFontaine dit Le Jeune.
The success of Abraham-Louis Breguet in the field of watch-making and clock-making industry earned him the awards of Master Clockmaker in 1784 and the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor held in 1819. He also became a member of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1814 and the Academy of Science in 1816. He was also chosen by the Royal Navy as their official watchmaker.
The technical expertise in watch-making and clock-making of Breguet left an important mark and considered him as one of the most celebrated antique clock makers of all time. His outstanding and brilliant innovations have contributed much in the field of horology.