The repair books indicate that this watch was completely restored on 13th January 1852, at the request of Monsieur le Duc d?Elchingen, Brigade General at Mans in la Sarthe. At the same time the first dial, bearing Turkish numerals, was replaced with the present dial, and the inscription engraved on the interior of the back. This watch was sold in the thematic sale ?The Art of Breguet?, on April 1991, lot 44.

Michel Ney (1769-1815)
Michel Ney (1769-1815) was a Marshal of the French army who fought in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He was born at Saarlouis in the Saarland, a naturalized German and the son of a master barrel cooper. He worked as an apprentice clerk for an iron works before he joined the 5th Hussars in 1787. An impulsive and courageous soldier, Ney is known for epitomizing the soldierly virtue of "leading from the front". He led the charge of the French heavy cavalry against British infantry at the Battle of Waterloo. However, Ney was also a skilled commander, performing excellently at the Battle of Elchingen (from which battle he later derived his ducal title); he probably won the Battle of Friedland for Napoleon. During the Retreat from Moscow, Marshal Ney commanded the rearguard, protecting the remnants of Napoleon's Grande Armée as it staggered back to France. Attacked daily by Russian Cossacks, Ney was at one point the only man standing in the whole rearguard, facing several thousand Russians on his own until his soldiers, who had previously deserted him, were shamed by Ney's second-in-command into returning. Ney was the last French soldier on Russian soil. On hearing of his escape, Napoleon, having previously thought Ney to be lost forever, declared that 'France is full of brave men but, truly, Ney is the bravest of the brave'. Despite Ney's humble roots, he was one of the first to be awarded the rank of Marshal by Napoleon. In addition to his military rank, Ney was created Duke of Elchingen on June 6, 1808 and Prince de La Moskowa on March 25, 1813. When Paris fell and the Bourbons reclaimed the throne, Ney (who was one of those who had pressured Napoleon to accept his first abdication and exile) was promoted, lauded, and made a peer by the newly enthroned Louis XVIII. Although Ney had pledged his allegiance to the restored monarchy, the Bourbon court reacted cooly to his common origins. When he was sent to arrest the returning Napoleon, he was convinced to switch sides and fight for his old leader again. During the Hundred Days campaign, he led the French forces at the Battle of Quatre Bras and commanded the left wing of Napoleon's army at the Battle of Waterloo. Ney has been criticized for his conduct in this battle, perhaps unfairly so. Napoleon had not explained his strategy for the whole campaign, nor had he listened to his generals' pleas for an outflanking manoeuvre instead of his own, unsubtle frontal assault on the British positions at Waterloo. Napoleon compounded these errors by remaining away from the front line for the majority of the battle, not giving Ney reinforcements that could have won him the battle and, to round it all off, he was also sick. Ney fought like a tiger, but he could not shift Wellington's men. When all was clearly lost, Ney gathered a group of French soldiers together and cried 'come, and see how a Marshal of France can die!' When Napoleon was defeated, dethroned and exiled for the second time in the summer of 1815, Ney was condemned for treason by the Chamber of Peers and executed by firing squad in Paris near the Luxembourg Garden. He refused to wear a blindfold and was allowed the right to give the order to fire, reportedly saying, "Soldiers, straight for the heart!" Ney's execution was an example intended for Napoleon's other marshals and generals, many of whom were eventually exonerated by the Bourbon monarchy. One of the more colorful legends of Ney that have grown up after the Marshal's untimely demise by firing squad was that Ney had managed to escape to the United States. Proponents of this "theory" argue that Ney had masonic ties, including to the Duke of Wellington, who helped him fake his execution and flee abroad. The basis for these rumors was the presence in the United States of a Peter Stuart Ney, who, when drunk, claimed to be the executed Napoleonic Marshal. While this is almost certainly untrue, Peter Stuart Ney certainly did live for a number of years teaching school in North and South Carolina, including at Davidson College, where he designed the school seal still used today. Ney died in 1846, after uttering the bizarre last words, "Bessières is dead; the Old Guard is dead; now, please, let me die."