Breguet - The Inventor of Inventors

The question that is often asked when it comes to horology is who made the first wrist watch? The credit for that goes to Abraham-Louis Breguet who founded his business in 1775 and made the first wristwatch in 1812.

Napolean Bonaparte’s sister, Caroline who became Queen of Naples was already familiar with Breguet. After all, Queen Marie-Antoinette was already possessing several unique self-winding watches from Breguet. Louis the XVI too was a great collector of Breguet watches. However, it was Queen Caroline of Naples, who on June 8, 1810, commissioned Breguet to craft for her, the world’s first ‘wristwatch’.

Breguet took two and a half years to produce the legendary wristwatch that carried the number ‘2639′. The watch had unprecedented sophistication consisting of a repeating watch, oblong in shape and exceptionally slender. The wrist band was made out of human hair, intertwined with gold thread.

Those were the days of monarchies around the world. Royalties loved Breguet. Other than Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, Napolean Bonaparte, Talleyrand, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Queen Victoria, all owned a Breguet watch. Queen Victoria purchased a Breguet in 1838, barely one year after her ascent to the throne. Sir Winston Churchill bought his first Breguet in 1901 and Arthur Rubinstein bought his first in 1930.

Breguet caught the imagination of authors and writers. Stendhal, Pushkin, Balzac, Alexander Dumas, Thackrey and Victor Hugo have all made references to Breguet in their works.

The story goes that both Wellington and Napolean, consulted their Breguet watch during the battle of Waterloo!

Abraham-Louis Breguet, who was a student of mathematics, did his apprentice as a watchmaker and married the daughter of a prosperous French nobleman. Her dowry provided for financing Breguet’s watch making workshop in 1775. Abraham-Louis Breguet produced watches till his death in 1823, till he was 76 years old. This, almost half-century between 1775 and 1823 can be called the ‘golden age’ in the world of horology. It would appear that almost everything that had to be invented in horology was done during this period. Abraham-Louis Breguet was a shining amour of all the inventions. By 1780, Breguet had made the first self-winding watch known as ‘Perpetuelles’ those days. By 1783, he invented the famous ‘Blue Breguet hands’ and one with Arabic numerals known as ‘Breguet numerals’. By 1789, he invented the Ratchet key known as the ‘Breguet key’. He forgot to file a patent for ‘Breguet key’ and over the next ten years, many watch makers copied his Ratchet key concept. ‘Tourbillon’, which continues to be an object of imagination even today was invented by Breguet in 1801.

One of the last inventions of Abraham-Louis Breguet was a ‘Chronograph’. Breguet defined Chronograph as the one that permitted the precise measurement of intermediate periods or the length of time taken by two simultaneous events.

After the death of Abraham-Louis Breguet, his nephew ran the business in partnership with an Englishman, Edward Brown, who later became the sole-owner of the house of Breguet. Next century saw a series of owners till the Parisian jewellery brothers, Chaumet bought the company in 1968. Finally, destiny took the house of Breguet to be part of the Swatch Group headed by Nicolas G. Hayek in 1999.

Almost to prove that inventors carry a different genetic structure, Abraham-Louis’ great great grandson Louie Breguet (1880 – 1955) built the first manned helicopter. After a while Louie Breguet build cockpit watches which are still used in airlines. Unlike his great great grandfather, Louie Breguet didn’t make watches for the public.

Product range
‘Breguet Classique’ models continue to be in design, using the principles of the founder. They are ultra-thin, hand-wound or self-winding, Chronograph or Tourbillons. The cases are easily recognised by their coin-edge design and famous blue-hands.

Breguet’s Marine watches are based on the models supplied to the French Navy. Its largest selling models, Type XX and Aeronavale, maintain the design philosophy of the watch development for French Naval Air Services.

Not to forget that the first wristwatch ever made was for a lady; Breguet named its ladies range as ‘Reine de Naples’. Reine de Naples Cammea wristwatch is in 18 karat white gold, self-winding, bezel set with 40 diamonds, crown set with a one-fourth carat ‘briolette’ diamond. The dial with cameo is carved out of a natural seashell with 18-carat gold rotor, hand-engraved on a rose-engine, set with natural mother-of-pearl and has 40 hours power-reserve. Sapphire-crystal caseback. The strap is chocolate colour alligator with folding clasp set with 26 diamonds and comes with a sapphire-crystal caseback. Look for a Cammea if you are looking for sophistication.

Finally, a quaint Breguet story
In 1983, Queen Marie-Antoinette’s Breguet watch got stolen from a Jerusalem museum. In 2005, Nicolas G. Hayek challenged himself to precisely produce a second Queen Marie-Antoinette watch that was stolen. As Hayek’s replica watch was nearing completion in 2007, the spoils of the 1983 robbery suddenly reappeared in Jerusalem.

*(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on June 18, 2008)

Blancpain: The Swiss Blue Blood

The Blue Blood of horology is of course English. The band of great clock makers of all time include Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703), Thomas Tompion (1639 – 1713), George Graham (1673 – 1751), John Harrison (1693 – 1776) and Thomas Mudge (1715 – 1794), were all Englishmen. Somewhere along the way, the world headquarters of horology moved to Switzerland.There is a raging and inconclusive debate as to who is the Blue Blood of Swiss horology. There are many claimants to the crown. They include Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, Cartier, IWC, Breguet and of course Blancpain. Abraham-Louis Breguet, founder of the Breguet empire is generally acknowledged to be the greatest watch maker of all time. He is credited with having either invented or patented a majority of all horological achievements. However, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, whose name appeared on a watch in 1735, is really the bluest of blue blood.

History
Starting with 1735, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain built watches in his large farmhouse in Villaret. It was only a 100 years later that his great grandson built a small factory to make complete watches. The business passed from father to son for 13 generations. The last member of the Blancpain family Fredric-Emile, ran the empire till 1932. On his death, the company was managed by Madame Fichter, a close colleague of Fredric. In 1926, the company produced the world’s first self-winding wristwatch. In 1953, a wristwatch, water resistant to a depth of 660 feet was worn by the famous French marine biologist, Jacques Cousteau. Ladybird, the most compact watch movement ever (11.85mm) followed.Notwithstanding its history and lineage, Blancpain could not withstand the advent of Quartz watches.The company went into a coma in 1971. Like sleeping beauty, Blancpain sank into deep sleep. Twelve years later, Jean-Claude Biver, a former Managing Director of Omega and Jacques Piguet took over the company and revived Blancpain. During 1992, Blancpain was acquired by the Swatch group headed by Biver. The moving soul behind Blancpain is now Marc Hayek, the son of legendary Nicolas Hayek.

Philosophy
Blancpain’s production is extremely limited. With less than 10,000 watches a year, each watch is individually numbered and recorded in the company’s archives. Their adamant devotion to mechanical watches is unchangeable. Each watch is handled by the craftsmen like a piece of art. Attention is given to the most minute details including the leather strap. The skins for the strap are specially selected by specialists after searching for weeks. Tanning of the skin is done in shades exclusive to Blancpain. It then takes 37 minutes to hand-sew each piece of the leather strap. That makes a Blancpain leather strap unmatched in its focus on exclusivity.Deep commitment to extreme standards of workmanship and exclusivity are the two hallmarks of Blancpain’s family.Blancpain’s philosophy is captured by a statement attributed to Jean-Claude Biver. He said “There had never been such a thing as a Blancpain quartz watch. And, none will exist in the future”. Another one from one of Blancpain’s old advertisements reads: “In the First Class cabin of a transatlantic flight, there is a one in a million chance that two passengers are wearing an identical Blancpain watch”.

Models
Given the limited number of collections, it is very difficult to pin-point flagship models. LeBrassus, Leman, Villeret and Sport are four key men’s models. Ladybird continues to form the ladies automatic model. Series 2100 introduced in 1994 forms the most popular and elegant, classique Blancpain series. *21′ represents the new century and *100′ indicates its 100-hour power reserve, its 100-hour test period and its 100-meter water resistance.

The typical Blancpain customer
In one of the recent interviews Marc Hayek was asked to describe a typical Blancpain customer. In the words of Hayek, “The Blancpain lover is an individual who has achieved something in his or her life . . .this person does not need or want to buy a status symbol . . .he is generous to himself . . .it takes more, he then learns to admire a Blancpain.” Most of the 10,000 lucky buyers who end up possessing a Blancpain watch have the privilege of remembering Jehan Blancpain whose initials “JB” is proudly inscribed on the watch dial alongside 1735. If you do not have to prove that you have arrived, go in for a ‘JB 1735′.

(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement in The BusinessLine of June 4, 2008)

Patek Philippe: A watch that lasts generations

At the peak of the British Empire, the Queen held an exhibition to display the technological marvels of that time. A company from Geneva barely twelve years old, had its own marvel – a watch with stem winding and time setting system by the crown. Later, when Queen Victoria bought her first Patek Philippe watch, the company was still known by its old name ‘Patek & Cie’. Queen Victoria owned one more exclusive Patek Philippe time piece created in pendant style to be worn pinned to her clothing. The list of Patek Philippe’s noble clientele includes Pope Pius IX, Christian IX, Louise (the King and Queen of Denmark), Victor-Emanuel III (King of Italy) and Hussein Kamal (Prince of Egypt). People who matter in the world are looking for Patek Philippe as a family heirloom to be passed on to the next generation. This is the essence of the Patek Philippe brand.

History
This is the 160th year since the company was founded on May 1, 1839 by two Polish immigrants. Like Rolex, the origin of Patek Philippe is hardly Swiss. Antoine Norbert de Patek, a salesman and Francois Czapek a watch maker invented a crown hand winding mechanism set up the company. Subsequently, a French watch marker Adrien Philippe joined the business and hence the name. The company was bought over by two Swiss brothers Charles and Jean Stern. Since then, four generations of Stern’s own and manage the company as a family. Patek Philippe’s brand emblem has deep historical roots and goes back to the middle ages. In 1158 a Spanish religious order defended the Calatrava citadel against the moors. At the end of the nineteenth century, Patek Philippe adopted the emblem of the brave Spanish knights as its brand symbol, which signs Patek Philippe watches today.The Calatrava continues to be the largest selling Patek Philippe model.

The other four models – ‘Ellipse collection’ was introduced in 1968, ‘Nautilus sports’ was introduced in 1976 and the ‘Gondolo collection’ was introduced in 1993. The ‘Star Caliber 2000′, a double sided pocket watch with 21 complications and ‘Sky Moon Tourbillion’ introduced in 2002 are the legendary models.

Beyond belief
Patek Philippe produced an ultra-complicated (with 24 functions) pocket watch in 1933 for one Henry Graves, Jr. Till 1989 this watch remained as the most complicated watch produced in the world. After his death, the watch was auctioned at Sotheby’s in December 1999 for US $ 11 million – the most expensive timepiece ever sold. On April 10, 2008 the platinum Patek Philippe tourbillon wrist watch (5002P Sky Moon Turbillon) at Hong Kong Sotheby’s was auctioned for $ 1.4 million. This, as of today, is the most expensive wrist watch in the world. As if a 24-function complication watch was not good enough; in its 150th year anniversary in 1989, Patek Philippe created the most complicated watch in the world again, by name ‘Calibre 89′. It holds 33 complications including the date of Easter, a thermometer, time of sunrise, equation of time, sidereal time and many other indicators. Calibre 89 is made out of 1728 unique parts (compared to 51 components that are needed to create a Swatch). Calibre 89 is also able to add a day to February for leap years, leaving out an extra day for every 100 years interval!

Investment writer Nic Foulkes writing for Financial Times, London (March 23, 2007) includes Patek Philippe in the list of “Alternate investments”. He includes brands such as Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and of course many Rolex models in his list of investables. Patek Philippe however sits on top like a colossus. There is an old Swiss saying *If you are buying a watch that is more than $ 100 for reading time; you must be quite foolish’. Watches for a long time have become a fashion statement, an emotional object to be owned, to discretely introduce who you are, but only Patek Philippes put watches in the class of investment. If you are choosing between Patek Philippes and Government bonds, you know what is good for you!Swatch, the world’s largest watch maker (by number) of course makes about 10 million watches a year. Rolex, the world’s largest (by revenue) makes only 600,000 watches a year and took 85 years to make its ten millionth watch. Patek Philippe took over 150 years to manufacture what Rolex produces in one year. As a closely held company it is impossible to find statistics about Patek Philippe – the company. The last available statistics puts the company’s revenue at $ 530 million in 2004.

If we keep the average price for a Patek Philippe at $ 20,000; it is fair to believe that they make about 25,000 watches a year. Quite apart from being a technological marvel and the limited number of watches they manufacture; Patek Philippe’s charm also lies in the company’s value and its brand positioning.

Value and heritage
This is how the company sees its own value: “It is hard to measure the value of Patek Philippe in purely financial terms. Aesthetics, craftsmanship and reliability all make their contributions. We purposefully design, produce and test every watch to last for generations. This allows us to say: ‘You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation’. Perhaps though, the true value is emotional. The desire to pass on a treasured possession, an heirloom, to a son or daughter can find no greater expression than in a Patek Philippe watch”. Lasting value is both material and emotional.

Tourbillion
The watch world changed to the power of ‘reserve’ in 2003 when Patek Philippe introduced the 10-day Tourbillion wrist watch. Those who buy sub-$100 Quartz watches can skip this one! For those who value real watches, here is the meaning of ‘Tourbillion.’ It was in the 18th century when inquisitive minds discovered that the sprint of the balance – the beating ‘heart’ that regulates portable watches – has a systemic error. Because of its helical shape, the spring’s center of gravity is not precisely in the middle. Consequently, the regularity of its oscillations is affected by earth’s gravitational pull as soon as the watch is moved out of the horizontal position. The tourbillon corrects this interference because it suspends the balance wheel and balance sprint in a cage that rotates about its own axis once a minute. Thus, the position error is automatically offset.If you are tired of making risky equity investment, and can’t guess the prices of gold or real estate in the future, try an alternate investment – a Patek Philippe watch. You can pass it on to the next generation with pride!

( This was published originally in Smartbuy, a suupplement of The BusinessLine, on May 14, 2008)

The Romance of Rolex

The Rolex brand, registered in the UK in 1908, completes its centenary this year. Often referred to as the Rolls-Royce of watch brands, it has a special place in the hearts of watch lovers around the world. And a Rolex wouldn’t be what it is without so much of an aura around the brand. This brand and its watches combine elegance, supreme luxury, reliability and ruggedness in a unique way.

The origin of Rolex is hardly Swiss. Founded in 1905 by German watch maker Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis under the name and style of *Wilsdorf & Davis’ in London, the company moved to Geneva in 1919.There is great mystery attached to how the name Rolex came about. Some believe that Wilsdorf, the founder, suddenly thought about the name while traveling in a London bus. Other historians believe that the name was arrived using a combination of *Rolls Royce’ and watch brand *Timex’ (which was sold as a watch brand in UK from 1879, but was unregistered till 1950).

A never ending story of romance
Rolex introduced the first waterproof watch in the world by patenting the *screw down crown’. In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became the first British woman to swim the English Channel wearing a Rolex. A month later, the legendary brand “Oyster” was born. 80 years thereafter, Oyster continues to be Rolex’s single biggest umbrella brand. This is a remarkable history not replicated by any other watch brand in the world.

1931 witnessed the introduction of the world’s first Automatic Rotary Winding Mechanism named ‘Oyster Perpetual’. Soon thereafter, in 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell set a world speed record wearing a ‘Rolex Oyster Perpetual’.

Rolex was the first wrist watch in the world (1910) to carry ‘Swiss chronometer rating’ which defines highest standards of accuracy and reliability. Not surprisingly, every Rolex watch gets handcrafted and about two hundred craftsmen and technicians work on every single piece before it acquires the Rolex name.

In 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing climbed Mount Everest, both wore Rolex watches; Hillary wore a Rolex Oyster and Tenzing, a Bubble back. Tenzing got his Bubble back as a gift from his longtime friend and fellow climber Raymond Lambert and it is currently on display in Rolex’s Geneva headquarters.

Rolex’s Hollywood connection
The story of Rolex’s romance does not end without telling the story of *Daytona’. Introduced in 1961, the Daytona was worn by Hollywood actor Paul Newman in his car racing film ‘Winning’ in 1969. Subsequently, all Daytona exotic dials were nicknamed ‘Paul Newman Models’.

Standing tall over the last 40 years, the Stainless Steel Cosmograph Daytona is considered to be the ‘Holy Grail’ for all watch collectors around the world. Unlike thousands of other brands, a new Daytona is usually available only on a waitlist.

You can gauge this watch’s worldwide appeal with this fact. The Paul Newman Exotic Daytona retailed for less than $ 150 in 1969. They are now, routinely sold in various auctions for between $ 35,000 to $ 50,000. Rolex’s magic moved beyond Paul Newman to Ian Fleming’s James Bond. All 007s from Dr. No till Golden Gun wore Rolex Oyster Perpetual.

Also endurance Sports and Rolex, as a brand, became inseparable through many decades. Arnold Palmer, Vijay Amritraj, Roger Federer, Justine Henin and Andy Roddick; all wore a Rolex watch proudly.

While Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual Line is the largest selling Rolex line, there are two other popular lines namely – Professional and Cellini. Rolex also trades under the umbrella of a less expensive brand named ‘Tudor’.

Some 85 years after the company was founded, Rolex made its 10 millionth watch in 1990. Every year, Rolex factories make only about 6 lakh watches. Rolex records higher revenues from six lakh watches compared to Swatch’s revenue from 10 million watches per year. And a very significant portion of Rolex’s revenues originate from models introduced some 75 years ago. Rolex’s greatest policy is never to adopt change for change’s sake!

What makes Rolex such a resilient brand? Some analysts believe that the single most important aspect of Rolex is that since inception till 1992, Rolex was managed by only two managing directors – namely – Hans Wilsdorf and Andre Heiniger. They really never had to worry about quarterly results. In 1992, Pat Heiniger took over from his father as the Managing Director. At Rolex, the philosophy has been that the product should speak for itself.

The Prince
One of the quaintest watches Rolex has ever made is the Cellini Prince. The Rolex Prince, developed in 1928, became a bestseller in its time. Prince, being a watch with a rectangular case and dual dial, was a complete departure from Rolex’s design philosophy. There were so few Prince watches made that an old Prince is a collector’s prized dream.

In the centenary year of brand incorporation, Rolex has introduced the new ‘Prince’. This version, rectangular in a 18ct gold case is not for everyone – it is only for those who are head over heels in love with Rolex!Pradipta K. MohapatraAn amateur historian of events, people and objects

( This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on April 29th)

Swatch's passage to fame

When Swatch, a leading brand in watches today, was introduced to the world in 1983 it was positioned as “a low cost, high-tech, artistic and emotional – second watch”. Swatch was a technological marvel made out of 51 components compared to the traditional watch, which needed at least 91 parts. The history of Swatch makes quite a fascinating story.

By late 70’s the famous watch making industry of Switzerland was anything but alive. By 1981 Switzerland’s largest watch company SSIH owning the OMEGA and TISSOT brands had gone bankrupt. So was the world’s largest producer of Swiss watch movement ASUAG – owning the Longines and Rado brands. Then came Nicholas Hayek, born and brought up in Lebanon, who became the saviour of the Swiss watch industry. He entered the watch industry and took over SSIH and ASUAG. By 1983, Hayek had already announced his two most famous theories. “If you want your luxury brands to survive, then you must play in all segments of the market. If the watch market needs to grow exponentially, then people must buy more than one watch. For emotional reasons rather than just to read time.” His theories worked wonders.

In the next ten years Swatch sold watches at less than US $ 40 a piece and clearly became the world’s largest selling watch brand. Today too, The Swatch Group is the world’s largest watch making group owning about 25 brands with factories in 156 centres and revenue of over US $ 3.2 billion. Swatch’s timepieces are designed by some 200 young designers drawn from all over the world who operate from Milan (not Switzerland!).

The Indian connection
In 25 years, Swatch designers introduced two watches carrying Indian themes. The first one was introduced in 1994 carrying the ‘Kamasutra’ motif. And the second one introduced in 1997 carried the stylized face of ‘MGR’ under the label *What am I today’. A team of two young ladies – a Britisher Su Huntley and a Canadian designer Donna Muir, designed both the Swatch watches. If you observe the Kamasutra Swatch closely, you’ll see that many of the women look Japanese.


This may be due to the designers’ belief that all Orientals look like the Japanese. The MGR Swatch is one of the most sought after models in India. For the tenth anniversary of Swatch, Nicholas Hayek got somewhat carried away and introduced a limited edition *Platinum Swatch’. Launched in Boston in November 1993 this became the lowest priced Platinum watch in the world. Retailed at US $ 1,200, only 12,000 pieces of this model were made. The Platinum Swatch was introduced to the world in then world’s largest Swatch Gallery in Harvard Square, Boston - the gallery was owned by an Indian, named Raman Handa. Braving Boston’s winter a 1,000 men and women stood in a queue from the previous midnight till Hayek arrived in Handa’s Swatch Gallery.

There are serious Swatch collectors all over the world. They lap up some 10 million Swatch watches a year. The Swatch Club is a remarkable online community for serious collectors to converse with each other and exchange their much-loved possessions. In the 25th year of Swatch, a salute to Hayek is due. Whoever spoke of *the power of one’ may have been right. Hayek single-handedly changed the face of the watch industry in the world.

(This originally appeared in SmartBuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on April 14th, 2008)