Early souscription, still with winding from the front only.See entry in the Breguet notebook for trials of Souscription watches, reproduced in Prof. Engel's book p. 166.Bedroom Roulette!Many years ago I visited the Maison Breguet in Paris, where Madame Blanvin told me that there was a collection of Breguets for sale in New York, some fifteen pieces and all in very fine condition! She kindly gave me the address of the owner, who answered my letter of enquiry with fifteen Polaroid pictures of the finest collection of Breguets I had ever seen. I called the owner, Mr. X, to explain my interest in at least 4 or 5 pieces of the collection, but Mr. X said, "Either all or none. The colection has to stay together". Day and night I thought about these watches and how I could possibly manage to raise the money to buy them. Eventually, I found a solution and once again called Mr. X. "Yes, I am ready to buy. How do we do the transaction?" Mr. X agreed to payment by certified cheque; we agreed a rendezvous and I flew over to New York full of hope with a certified cheque in my pocket. I duly arrived at his flat where he showed me the Breguets. They were truly magnificent, all in ther original red leather boxes and in perfect condition, having been serviced regularly by Tiffany's. As I cast my eyes over quarter-repeaters, minute-repeaters, perpetual watches, watches with solar and sidereal time; perpetual calendars, gold dials and silver dials with secret signatures etc., etc. I was deeply impressed. My heart was pounding and the adrenaline in my blood gave me a sense of heightened excitement.As I recovered my poise, Mrs. X announced dinner which turned out to be the very best of French cuisine; I later found out that Mrs. X was of French origin.After a delightful meal, I pulled the cheque out of my pocket and glanced furtively at my watch. Time was getting short, I was booked on the evening flight to Frankfurt.All of a sudden my hosts went quiet; they did not say a word until some minutes later, when Mr. X told me that they had decided after all not to sell these watches. "We simply cannot part with them", he explained. I could not believe my ears; I was shocked. "But," I said to Mr. X, "we have an arrangement. We have been discussing this sale in detail. I have come all the way across the Atlantic with the money in my pocket and now you say NO. You cannot do this to me".Well, he was obviously very sorry, somewhat upset and his wife started crying. "Since you have come so far, I will let you have this small watch signed Breguet. It is a quarter repeater with calendar. You can have it for US$ 1,000 because it is probably not a true Breguet since I was unable to get a certificate for it from Breguet in Paris". I had no choice, but rather than return home empty handed, I said "Yes" knowing that without doubt this watch was probably a very, very early genuine one anis therefore not registered in the Breguet books. I returned to Frankfurt somewhat mollified, and as far as I was concerned, that was the end of the matter.Or was it not? A week later I had dinner in Zurich together with Mr. E. Mannheimer and his charming wife who invited me to their elegant home. The moment we entered the apartment the telephone rang and I heard Mr. Mannheimer say "Yes, yes, yes". It was Mr. Seth Atwood from Chicago who explained that he had had the offer of 15 Breguet watches from a New York collector. Apparently, the seller said that he had had a much better offer from a gentleman from Germany and did Mannheimer know who that cold possibly be. "Yes, indeed, I know who that is", replied Mannheimer, "He is standing right next to me. Would you like to speak to him?" The telephone was passed to me and Seth Atwood introduced himself to me. I explained what had happened to me and said that I was very disappointed."Well", he said, "if that is the case, then I step out". "No!" I cried, "to the contrary, I propose a gentleman's agreement whereby I give Mr. X a call and tell him that I am no longer interested. You can then go ahead and buy the collection and we split the watches between us". This was agreed; I made the telephone call and Seth Atwood bought the collection. But now how do we continue? It was Mr. Mannheimer who proposed that he fly to New York, meet Atwood there and flip a coin on the basis thawhoever wins shall have the first choice, then the other, the second choice and so on until the collection was divided.Mannheimer duly flew to New York while Seth Atwood came up from Chicago in his private jet. They met in a hotel room and flipped a coin. Lo and behold, the coin fell on the edge of the carpet and rolled underneath the bed. Both men looked at each other and dove to the floor. Together they lay on the floor peering underneath the bed to retrieve the coin. It was heads, my choice. I got almost all the watches I wanted.Mr. Mannheimer arrived back in Frankfurt Airport, tired and exhausted with a 2-day growth of beard. After customs clearance he handed me the watches and said with a smile on his face, "If you ever have another deal like this you know where to find me!"P. S.Some of the watches in question where sold by the "Time Museum" at Sotheby's auction in New York, December 1999.The others have now become the property of the City of Chicago.Anecdote taken from "A. L. Breguet - Watchmaker to the Kings", by Thomas Engel, 1994 Edition, pp. 202-204.