"Pendules Marine" with constant force escapement were the most complicated and expensive of Breguet clocks. The present clock is one of the five most expensive Breguet ever sold. Of these, four were "Pendules Marine" which were sold to heads of state: this one to Emperor Alexander I, one to the English Regent, one to the Queen of Spain, and one to Prince Demidoff, which was probably destined for the Emperor Nicholas I. Of the first series of "Pendules Marines Sympathiques", only four were completed and sold: No. 421 to the King of Spain (6000 Francs), the present one, No. 666 to the Prince Regent, later King George IV, and No. 430 sold much later in 1830 to the Prince A. Demidoff (24160 Francs). The importance of the present clock, reflected by the price it was sold for at the time, lies in the revolutionary solutions devised by Breguet, as well as the exceptional execution. The constant force escapement was, along the tourbillon regulator, Breguet?s major invention. Extremely difficult to manufacture (only the best watchmakers were able to produce them) the constant force escapement was also extremely expensive and were mainly devoted by Breguet to high-precision timekeepers. Breguet invented two types of constant force escapement for clocks, one with a pivoted arm with weight and another, this one, patented in 1798. The unidirectional impulse is delivered by a spring reminiscent of the Peto cross detent which is locked by another detent that looks like Earnshow?s spring detent. The unlocking jewel set on the balance staff unlocks the locking detent which releases the impulse spring which gives an impulse to the balance via the impulse jewel set on the balance staff below the unlocking jewel. After the impulse is given, the spring continues its movement and pushes the escape wheel detent off the escape wheel, which drives the impulse detent behind the locking detent. The escape wheel locking the detent is locked in position by a fly set on the arbor of the pinion driving the escape wheel (via a second wheel set on the escape wheel arbor). It took exactly four months from August 1 to December 1, 1804 to finish the escapement, patented by Breguet only six years earlier on March 9th, 1798. Breguet timekeepers equipped with this escapement are exceedingly rare. The present clock has, over the years, been separated from the "sympathique" watch which originally went with it. This is not an unusual occurrence: the cradle and the entire "sympathique" mechanism was completely removed on the "Pendule Marine" with constant force escapement No. 1. In another, No. 421, made for the King of Spain (sold by Antiquorum, 16 October, 1994, lot No. 373), the watch was replaced with a calendar. A clock very similar to the present one, in a case "à colonnes rondes", No. 666, was sold in August 1814 to the Prince Régent of England and is now considered one of the most important clocks in the collection of the Queen of England.Emperor Alexander I born in St. Petersburg on December 12, 1777, he was the eldest son of Paul I, son of Catherine the Great, and of Maria Fyodorovna, the former Princess of Wurttemburg. At birth, he was taken to be brought up in Catherine the Great?s household, and was greatly influenced by his grandmother, who considered him her successor. He was tutored by the Swiss republican philosopher, La Harpe, who had been personally chosen by Catherine to mold Alexander's personality and give him a broad education. Under La Harpe's tutelage Alexander was well-versed in European culture, history and political principals. Indeed, the young prince became an idealist in the tradition of the Enlightenment. In 1793 Alexander married the young princess Elizabeth of Baden. As a wedding present, Catherine gave her grandson the Alexander Palace, showing her preference for his grandson over her son, Paul, by granting Alexander a larger court than his father's. This further poisoned the already difficult atmosphere in the family. Alexander acceeded to the throne after the murder of his father, Paul I, on March 12, 1801 (in which he was suspected of complicity), and was crowned in the Kremlin on September 15. The young Emperor was extremely popular among all classes of society. The first half of his reign, influenced by his early education, was marked by a liberal internal policy; his reforms included a restructuring of the country and an attempt to codify Russian legislation. Slowly, for a number of reasons, Alexander turned away from his childhood dreams and principles, relying increasingly on autocratic methods. Once he began using autocratic power, administered through men who served at his will, it corrupted him. The longer he used this method of ruling Russia, the more difficult he bagan for him to return to the principals of good government and the role of the monarch he had learned in his youth. The war with Napoleon which ravaged Russia, taking hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed some of the Empire's finest cities, took its own personal toll on Alexander. Troubled by the loss of life and the war itself, he began to see war as not only a struggle between nations, but also as a spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil. He very wisely conducted the defense against Napoleon, retreating first, and then attacking when the French were exhausted, cold, and hungry. The Russian tactics were of capital importance in Napo-leon?s defeat. After many hardships and setbacks, the victory of the Allies over Napoleon was crowned by a triumphal entry of the generals into Paris, Alexander riding at their head. This moment was perhaps the apogee of his reign. Sub-sequently, instead of resting on his laurels and enjoying the hero status he knew throughout Europe, Alexander grew increasingly troubled spiritually. While in western Europe with the Russian Army he sought out and came under the influence of spiritual advisors from foreign countries. He toyed with some of their ideas but eventually discarded them for his own Orthodox faith. Alexander?s last years were marked by an overwhelming religious obsession. At the end of his reign, a troubled and broken man, he left his Polish mistress of 13 years, Maria Naryshkina, and returned to his wife, Elizabeth, who for years had suffered from his infidelity and neglect. In the fall of 1825, Alexander traveled to the south of Russia along with his wife. It is said that he simulated his own death there, on November 19, 1825, in the town of Taganrog, disappearing to become a monk and wandering the forests of Siberia for several years afterward. The Soviet Government fanned the flames of these rumors when it announced in the 1920's that his coffin had been opened and was found to be empty. Alexander died on November 19, 1825, in Taganrog and was buried in the St. Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.