The Hour Hand in the ThumbIt is one of my habits to carry a Breguet watch in my pocket at all times. Not so much for reading the time, because I have a wristwatch for that. No, it is more for the feeling of having that treasure in my pocket, to hear its tick and to look at the movement.One day I received an invitation to a party at the house of a friend of mine and let me tell you we had a lot of fun. Then I pulled my watch out of the pocket. Everybody wanted to see it, listen to the repetition and hear what I had to say about this rare piece of horology. Of course, many of my friends knew about my hobby. "Could we have a look at the movement please?", they asked. "Certainly," I replied, "no problem". I took the watch back into my hand in order to open the lunette. Was it thexcitement? Was it the alcohol? I do not know. While I opened it, my finger slipped and I broke off the tip of the hour hand. What a catastrophe!Immediately I began to search on the carpet for this little piece of steel only 3 mm long, but without success. Finally the whole party entered into the search and lay on the carpet, underneath the chairs and table. It does not require a lot of imagination to see how much fun this generated; we did not find anything and I had to take the loss as it was, but the new party game "Engel" became firmly established.A few days later I felt a pain in my finger; I could not think what could be the problem. The pain grew worse and developed into an infection. A few days later, I opened up the painful swollen finger with a scalpel and to my surprise sitting in the midst of the open wound was the tip of the Breguet hour hand, almost smiling at me. I removed it and bound up the finger. The watch and hand tip were sent to a specialist who artistically welded it back in place. Today the repair is invisible. The finer is much more comfortable too!Anecdote taken from "A. L. Breguet - Watchmaker to the Kings", by Thomas Engel, 1994 Edition, p. 199.