Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) Abraham-Louis Breguet was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on 10 January 1747. His family were protestants, although it has never been clearly established whether they were in fact refugees from France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, or long-standing citizens of Neuchatel where the Breguet name is recorded as far back as the 15th Century. Neverthless, it was France that was to become his adopted country and the base for his future success. Breguet was only eleven years of age when his father died, but his mother almost immediately became remarried to her husband's cousin, a certain Joseph Tattet, whose family were watchmakers with a sales office in Paris. Tattet took Breguet to Paris in 1762, and the young man became apprenticed to a watchmaker at Versailles, although the name of his master is unknown. After completing his apprenticeship he may well have worked for Ferdinand Berthoud or Jean-Antoine Lepine, but he certainly studied mathematics at the Collège Mazarin under the Abbé Marie. It was Marie, in his capacity as tutor to the children of the Comte d?Artois, who was to provide Breguet with his first introduction to the aristocratic and wealthy families later to become his clientele. In 1775 Breguet married Cécile Marie-Louise L'Huillier; her dowry undoubtedly providing much of the capital required to establish a business. She was the daughter of an established Parisian bourgeois family, her brother in fact becoming first a steward to the Marquis du Breuil and later business agent for the Comte d'Artois. Renting part of the house at No. 39, Quai de l'Horloge, in the Ile de la Cité, from the Duchess de Polignac, Abraham-Louis opened his own business that same year, in 1775. Evidently, the contacts he had established through Abbé Marie were of almost immediate benefit, for he supplied a sophisticated self-winding watch to the Duc d'Orléans in 1780, and another to Marie-Antoinette in 1782. It would appear that Breguet worked largely on his own for the next four or five years, as very few completed watches survived from the period. However in 1787, he arranged a partnership with Xavier Gide, an established dealer in clocks and watches, for the purpose of introducing additional capital into the business. Although not a lasting success - the partnership was dissolved in 1791, probably due to the character differences between the two men - the great surviving legacy from the arrangement was to be the records kept by the firm, begun in the year of their association and continued uninterrupted to the present day. The growing storm surrounding the French Revolution was to disrupt Breguet's life in Paris, while at the same time heralding the period of his greatest achievement. Initially a Jacobin, he was unable to escape the consequences of his association with the aristocracy. His son Antoine-Louis, sent to England to study watchmaking under John Arnold, wrote home in August 1792, expressing his fears for his father's safety and strongly urging him to "leave those damned Jacobins." In fact Abraham-Louis left Paris in August 1793, traveling to Geneva on a safe-conduct pass, apparently arranged by his close friend Marat. According to family tradition, Breguet had saved Marat's life on a previous occasion, dressing him up as an old woman to escape from a house besieged by an angry crowd. It is certain, in any case, that the two men were friends: Marat's sister Albertine made watch hands for Breguet. Although the business in Paris suffered drastically from the master's absence - the premises and tools being confiscated - Breguet's forced exile in Switzerland was not unproductive. He employed his time there to strengthen his contacts with watchmakers throughout his native country, and to develop, at least in his mind, a vast range of ideas that were to re-launch the firm upon his return to Paris in 1795. A flurry of activity accompanied his arrival, and many of his important inventions and most exceptional creations can be dated to the years immediately following the return. Although certain of his former clients amongst the aristocracy had been dispossessed or executed, other clients quickly replaced them, among them the Generals, politicians and families which had risen to prominence under Napoleon. Breguet took his son into full partnership, the commercial aspects of the business being looked after by Breguet's sister-in-law Suzanne l'Huillier, his wife had died long before, in 1 80. If anything, the wars in Europe served only to strengthen the business; diplomats, ambassadors and aristocrats traveled regularly to Paris, particularly from the countries ruled by Imperial France, and a network of agents represented the firm everywhere: Constantinople, Moscow, London, and Madrid. During the last ten years of Abraham-Louis' life, his business was to reach the highest point of its commercial success, with the assets valued at some Fr. 800,000 in 1823, of which Fr. 450,000 was listed as work in progress. He was himself to be rewarded for his achievements; already created "Horloger de la Marine" by Louis XVIII, he became a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, member of the French Board of Longitude and in 1816 elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences. Abraham-Louis Breguet died rather suddenly on 17 September 1823. Although he had been widely praised both by his clients and his contemporaries, it has been left to history to make a judgement of his achievements. It is probably no exaggeration to say that he was the greatest horologist of all time, a man with an unique combination of abilities, who revolutionized the technique, design and image of his chosen field. Nicolas G. Hayek Nicolas G. Hayek, born in 1928, is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors f the Swatch Group, with headquarters in Biel-Bienne. The list of his achievements reads like a "Who?s Who" of the business world. He is best known for the decisive role he played in the recovery of the Swatch Group in the early 1980s. This led to the Swiss watch industry dramatically regaining its No 1 position worldwide by achieving yearly sales of over 4 billion Swiss francs. Among his most important other achievements are his strategic decision to launch Swatch and the continuous development and improvement of products and trademarks such as Breguet, Omega, Rado, Longines, and Tissot. As a sign of gratitude for his achievements, Mr. Hayek was awarded the title of Doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of "Beni Culturali" of the University of Bologna (Italy) in June 1998, after being awarded doctor honoris causa of Law and Economics of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in 1996. From other Swiss institutions, he was awarded: "Troubleshooter of the year" by the Swiss media (1984), "Freiheitspreis" of the Max-Schmidheiny Foundation (1993), Entrepreneur of the decade, Branco-Weiss foundation (1993), and the Innovation award of Oekreal (1993). In 1994, he created a joint venture with Mercedes-Benz, the MCC Company, of which he was Chairman for the first two years, and then Vice-Chairman until the Smart car was launched in 1998. In 1995, the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed Mr. Hayek member of his council for Research, Technology and Innovation for the future of Germany and Europe. Mr. Hayek was the only foreigner among its seventeen members. In 1996, the Government of France nominated Mr. Hayek President of the "Groupe de réflexion" of France, an innovation council for future economic strategies of France. He is also consultant to many European governments. In 1998, Mr. Hayek became a member of IOC 2000, a workshop of the International Olympic Committee formed to restructure future Olympics. As of May 2001, Mr. Hayek is also a Member of the European Commission?s workshop "Brussels Capital of Europe", for the definition of the required needs and functions of a capital of Europe. In November 2002, the Government of the Republic of Austria conferred on him the order "Das Grosse Ehrenzeichen mit Stern". In June 2003, the Republic of France awarded him the order "Officier dans l?Ordre National de la Légion d?Honneur". Nicolas G. Hayek is the founder, Chairman of the Board and (c).E.O. of Hayek Engineering, Inc. Its headquarters are in Zurich. Over more than 30 years, Mr. Hayek has gained a leading reputation throughout the world, with an impressive list of international clients. Breguet ? the story continues Since its integration into the Swatch Group in September 1999, and under the impetus of Nicolas G. Hayek, as President Directeur Général of Breguet, the Breguet brand has benefited from having the industrial solidity of a well established, solid group behind it, and in seeking to differentiate Breguet from the rest of the Swatch Group, Hayek has created in the brand an emotional dimension which has manifested itself in the form of added resources. The renovation and enlargement of Breguet Manufacturing represents the realisation of an important investment in the Vallee de Joux. The accent has been on the development of production resources, of new equipment and infrastructures, of sophisticated machines and the employment of highly qualified horologers. Recently Breguet has seen the introduction of a Brevet mechanism for phases of the moon (the Reine of Naples), the development of an alarm function based on a system of wheels to columns and the indexation of an alarm or an hourly fusee. Pure lines and the maintenance of Breguet values continue to enamor the grand amateurs and aficionados of the brand. One of the most precious attributes being fine hand turning. The celebrated Breguet blued-steel hands with their hollowed-out circles, invented in 1783, and the elegance of the fluted case, are all attributes one still finds in the majority of Breguet pieces.