History: The sale registers confirm that in 1801, Breguet noted this watch simply as being sold to: Un Monsieur qui parfait pour Naples. It is however certain, that it subsequently became the property of Count Woronzoff, as the repair books confirm, that the present case, No234, was made at the same time as the watch was restored to perfect condition, following instructions received in a letter from Monsieur le Comte Woronzoff, dated 23 June 1852. The presence of the small auxiliary dial subdivided to indicate five-minute periods confirms that this watch originally had only a single hand in common with all souscription watches. The present dial, divided for two hands, was fitted during the complete overhaul carried out by Breguet. The presence of a glazed window in the à tact cover is extremely rare. Turning the cover in a clockwise direction (it must be revolved in the opposite direction to find the time with the arrow) enables the required month to be sighted in the window, and a comparison to be made between the normal months and the Republican calendar, along with the equation of time for the first day of each Décade. Only one other example of such a watch is known, currently in the collection of the Beyer Museum in Zurich. Exhibition: Musée du Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers: Les Breguet - Cinq générations d' inventeurs et de constructeurs, Paris, 1962.
Mikhaïl Seminovitch COMTE WORONZOFF (1782 - 1856) Mikhail Seminovitch Woronzoff, soldier, diplomat and administrator, was born in St. Petersburg in 1782. He was educated in England, where his father served as Ambassador, and at the age of 19, entered the army of the Caucasus, serving against the French between 1812 and 1814. After representing Russia at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, he was subsequently named as governor of New Russia and Bassarabia in 1823. Under his command, the army besieged and captured the town of Varna in 1828 during the campaigns against the Porte. Czar Nicholas 1st created him Viceroy and military commander of the Caucasian army in 1844, and the following year he successfully stormed the small town of Dargo, the most important stronghold defending Schami. Woronzoff was promoted to the rank of Marshall of Russia in 1852, and sent to England as a diplomatic envoy in 1853. He finally retired in 1856. His career had been a marked success, not only as a military commander, but also in the field of civil administration. During his time as governor, he completely transformed the Crimea, constructing an impressive and strategically important road between Sympherol and Sebastopol, and significantly improving the latter, where a quay, avenue and a street all bore his name. He also developed vast areas of land for agriculture, and built a large country house at Aloupka surrounded by a magnificent park. Prince Woronzoff died in 1856, outlived by his wife Countess Brunicka and an only son, Semen, whose joint estates, (in 1860), were listed as including 65 small-holdings , nd 10,450 hectacres in the Kachkary district of Perekop in the Crimea.