History: This watch was collected from Breguet by the Duke of Bedford on behalf of the Prince of Wales. Note: The fact that Breguet records this watch as being collected by the Duke of Bedford on behalf of the Prince of Wales, indicates that it was a direct commission rather than a chance purchase; indeed, certain details of its construction are more in keeping with English taste of the period. With the exception of the montres tact, it is certainly one of the earliest savonette or "hunter" watches that Breguet produced, and the dial is planted with the Roman numeral III alongside the pendant (in France this was usually the position of the XII, even on savonette watches). The engine-turned centre of the dial is also atypical of Breguet, being of a circular pattern, but is reminiscent of Recordon, his agent in London. It is therefore quite possible that the watch was made for the Prince following instructions received from Recordon. With the term nouveau calibre (new calibre) Breguet described a new type of movement that he introduced for simple watches after 1796, when he returned from exile.
George Augustus Frederick PRINCE OF WALES AND LATER KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND (1762 - 1830) Eldest son of George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he was educated with his brother, the Duke of York, in rather severe circumstances at Kew, West London. He showed natural ability and became well versed in the classics, fluent in Italian, French and German, with considerable taste for music and the arts. His tutor, Bishop Richard Hurd said of him when he was only 15 years old that he would be "... either the most polished gentleman or the most accomplished blackguard in Europe - possibly both". George III led a very strict and frugal lifestyle, and it was possibly this that led the Prince of Wales into a whirl of pleasure seeking. He was by nature a brilliant and generous young man, and extremely handsome, but he began to anger the King by befriending the whig Parliamentarians and spending excessively, accruing massive debts - a trait that was to cause him immense problems throughout his life. He met and fell passionatley in love with a beautiful young widow, Mary Anne (Maria) Fitzherbert, who was both a Roman Catholic and a commoner. She refused to become the Prince's mistress and they secretly married in 1705, an act which breached both the Act of Settlement (disallowing the heir to the throne to marry a Roman Catholic) and the royal Marriage Act (any marriage was illegal without the King's consent). The Prince lived openly with Maria in the seaside resort of Brighton and a scandal arose, seriously jeopardising his position with Parliament, which had the power to regulate his financial allowances. Fox - a leading Whig, agreed to stand for the Prince and publically announced to the House that no such marriage had taken place, a statement that obviously upset Mrs. Fitzherbert, but she later forgave him and their relationship continued until the Prince's marriage to Princess Caroline of Brunswick. He agreed to the match to appease the King and force the government to pay off his huge debts, but from the start their marriage was doomed to failure; they did however have one daughter, Charlotte, but immediatley after her birth the Prince and Princess of Wales led seperative lives, Charlotte being in the custody of her mother. In 1811, after years of lapsing in and out of insanity, George III was finally declared insane, and the Prince became Regent. He became increasingly unpopular with the people, who saw the profligate and luxurious life led by their Regent, whilst they remained poor and starving due to the expense of the protracted war against France. They sympathised with Princess Caroline, who had had her daughter taken away from her, been evicted from Kensington Palace and made very unwelcome at Court, causing her to leave England and live in Italy until the death of George III in 1820. On ascending the throne, George IV immediatlyy ordered that no prayer for his wife should be admitted into the Prayer book, infuriating Caroline who returned to England. On the day that she arrived in London, George sent incriminating evidence of adultery charges against his wife, to both Houses of Parliament. He had been collecting information on Caroline's activities in Italy for over two years, and now brought this against her in order to gain a divorce. The House of Lords brought in a report and the Prime Minister founded a bill of pains and penalties to divorce the Queen and deprive her of her royal title; it was eventually abandoned by the government after passing through 3 readings with diminished majorities. The public was furious that such a charge should be brought about by a husband who had rejected his wife, cutting her off without protection or support and surrounding her with his spies to detect - and maybe invent - possible acts of infidelity, when he was leading such a notorious and adulterous lifestyle. Caroline died shortly after the Coronation - to which she tried to force an entry - and relieved the King from any further annoyance. The political wrangling continued, especially with respect to the Catholic Relief Bill, to which the King had always been adamantly opposed, but finally in 1829, he withdrew his objections, not having the courage to resist it any longer. He died in 1830, having outlived his daughter Charlotte, who had died in childbirth.