Turkish-style Breguet watchBreguet Museum has acquired an extremely prestigious pocket-watch
The Breguet Museum has acquired an extremely prestigious watch, made in 1808 for a dignitary of the Ottoman Empire, for the sum of CHF 650,000. This represents a record bid for a Turkish-style Breguet watch, and also a record for a pocket-watch auctioned on the youthful inland China market.
This historical piece was ordered in 1807 by His Excellency Esseid Ali Effendi, former Turkish ambassador to Paris of the nation nicknamed “The Sublime Portal”, and a personal friend of Abraham-Louis Breguet. He contributed to the latter’s early awareness of the Turkish market’s significance, especially since Turkey was the only major power still allied with Napoleonic France… One may recall at this juncture that Napoleon’s gift to mark the instatement of Sultan Mahmud II in 1813 was a Breguet sympathique clock covered in precious stones – the most expensive object ever made by A.-L. Breguet, and which is still kept in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
The Breguet N° 1090 Grande Complication watch is a quarter-repeating model with independent grande and petite sonnerie featuring a case and double-case enamelled in the classic Turkish style, along with a dial graced with ancient Arabic numerals – all in an exceptionally good state of conservation. This piece was the highlight of the sale held by Poly Auction in Beijing and generated intense bidding. It will thus now be joining the other Breguet Museum treasures and will be exhibited in a few weeks’ time in Paris in the Breguet Museum located above the iconic boutique on the Place Vendôme.