Breguet

Abraham-Louis Breguet, born in Neuchâtel in 1747, opened his own workshop on the Quai de l'Horloge, Île de la Cité in Paris in 1775. Introduced to the French court through Abbé Marie, his clients included Queen Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. He invented the first automatic watches in 1780, the pare-chute shock absorber in 1790, the Breguet balance-spring in 1795, and patented the tourbillon in 1801. In 1810, he received the order for the first watch designed to be worn on the wrist, for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples. He was appointed Watchmaker to the French Royal Navy in 1815. After his death in 1823, his son Antoine-Louis took over, followed by grandson Louis-Clément in 1833. In 1870, Louis-Clément sold the watchmaking company to workshop manager Edward Brown. The Brown family ran the company for a century. The Swatch Group acquired Breguet in 1999.