The present watch is one of the very few watches to survive from the first period (before 1794) after the founding of Breguet?s new business in 1787 and the only one known to survive with English type cylinder escapement. Repeating watches from this period are the first recognisably designed by Breguet to suit his own requirements. The first eighteen were entered in the registers in 1791 and most were finished by 1792. The repeating work is Breguet?s own development of the mechanism invented by Matthew Stogden. It is reduced to occupy only a small space, thus leaving plenty of room for additional complications that might be required. The exposed mainspring barrel supported in a separate cock also carrying the train wheels and the repeating spring beneath a ?Y? shaped bridge are distinguishing features of this early type of repeating movement. The other repeating watches to survive from before 1794 have lever escapements. By the time the present watch was made, Breguet had obviously reached the conclusion that the lever escapement was too costly and complicated and there is evidence that he was having difficulty in getting them made properly. Literature: The present watch is discussed in George Daniels, ?The Art of Breguet?, 1977, pp. 68 & 302. Breguet and the cylinder escapement Breguet used the cylinder escapement throughout his life. Like the virgule, it is a frictional rest escapement but of a far superior kind. In reality, the cylinder escapement as made by the English makers was not much better than the verge. This was because the diameter of the cylinder was too great in relation to the diameter of the balance, this caused a loss of energy through friction. To reduce the friction, the English makers, who were very skilled in the art of jewelling, made the halfsection of cylinder of ruby. The ruby was fitted into a steel frame ? it was this form of cylinder escapement that Breguet first used in his watches. The present watch is the only known survivor of a Breguet watch fitted with this escapement. By about 1795 Breguet had developed the ruby cylinder to the very familiar ?overhanging? ruby cylinder. These escapements performed so well and with such increased consistency of rate that temperature errors previously swamped by general bad performance now needed correction. For this reason, except in his smallest watches, Breguet?s ruby cylinder escapements use a compensation curb. Ten-Minute-Repeating The ten-minute repeating mechanism is a variation of the half-quarter repeating system which sounds one blow for the hours and two each for each ten minutes. The half-ten-minutes sounds one extra blow for each additional five minutes, for example, if the time indicated is one forty-five, the watch will strike one blow for the hour, four double blows for the forty minutes and one further blow for the extra five minutes. The French Republican Calendar Between 1792 and 1805 France used what was known as the Republican Calendar. In this all the months were renamed and years began with the foundation of the Republic at An I. All months had 30 days except the 12th month, which had 35 or 36 on a leap year. The Republican year ran from September to August.