From Family of the Original Owner This outstanding carriage clock stands out as remarkable, even among Breguet carriage clocks. It is described in the registers as a "Petite Pendule à Almanac". This is the only almanac (calendar) clock which is described as "small". The carriage clock, as we know it today, was designed and invented by Breguet around 1795. In 1798 he sold his first one to Napoleon Bonaparte (No. 178, sold by Antiquorum on April 14, 1991, lot No. 10). Both have the same type of case, a full digital calendar based on revolving cylinders, the phases of the moon on the same portion of the dial, and the same repeating mechanism. Examining Breguet?s carriage clocks one is astonished to see how far ahead of his time he was. Indeed, although the basic movements are strikingly similar, more recent clocks rarely match those of Breguet in finish and complication. Breguet made approximately 90 carriage clocks, many of them in mahogany cases. Those in gilt brass cases are scarce and rarely come onto the market. In addition to its size, one should stress the remarkable degree of precision Breguet put into the finish of this clock and the utmost care and attention given to its details. The escapement, the heart of every timekeeper, is a marvel of watchmaking skill, far ahead of its time. The application of a lever escapement is rare for the time and was attempted by only the best watchmakers. It is superbly finished, in a manner on a par with the best horologists of the 19th century, and even later. The escapement has draw to prevent accidental stopping during transport, it has specially curved sapphire inserts in the pallets, one convex, the other concave, to equalize the momentum exerted on the balance during both swings. The final equalizing is done by the specially calibrated tail of the fork. The balance itself is made like the ones found only in his best "Garde Temps" chronometers. It has three bimetallic segments and three platinum sliding weights for temperature adjustment. Breguet plac d elastic suspension on the balance pivot to minimize the risk of breaking the balance if the clock were dropped. He jeweled the escapement, at a time when jeweling was very expensive and not yet common on the continent. In fact Breguet, had brought back a master watch jeweler, Mr. Hooker, from one of his trips to England. The work done on the escapement and the finishing cost him six times more than the cost of the entire case! For the repetition mechanism Breguet chose his own system, very clever in construction, utilizing a single rack for striking the hours as well as the quarters with an ingenious lifting mechanism that "knows" when to move the lifting pallets away the rack, to strike only the correct number of hours and quarters. When describing the technical aspects of the mechanism, we must also mention the simple though ingenious way in which motion was transmitted from the hour wheel to the calendar. He utilized an arbor such as the arbor of the old verge escapement, fixed on one side to a wheel (gearing with the hour wheel), where one flag at the bottom advances the days of the week and the other the date. All this was difficult, time-consuming and costly, which explains the price Breguet asked for the clock: a staggering 4000 francs, when a simple silver Breguet watch might be bought for less than 500 francs.