Provenance: From the 1930's this watch was in the collection of the Elgin Watch Company, of Elgin, llinois, U.S.A. Although the exact details of how and when it was acquired by the Elgin Company, are unknown, information kindly supplied by the present Lord Elgin confirms that the late Earl visited America on several occasions, and it may therefore have been presented to the museum.
THOMAS BRUCE 7th Earl of Elgin, 11th Earl of Kincardine (1766-1841) Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin and eleventh Earl of Kincardine was born on 20th July, 1766, succeeding to his estates and titles in 1771. He was educated in England at Harrow and Westminster schools and continued his studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland and then in Paris where he studied Civil and Public law under Bouchaud, Professor at the Ecole de Droit. It was his forbear, Robert Bruce, King of the Scots from 1306 to 1329, who led his army at the Battle of Bannockburn to defeat King Edward II of England in 1314. His sword still exists and is kept at Broomhall, the Elgin family seat in Scotland. In 1633, Sir Thomas Bruce, the third Baron of Kinloss was created First Earl of Elgin. The seventh Earl Elgin joined the British Army in 1785 in which he rose to become a general in 1837. To mark his coming of age he had his portrait painted by Anton Graff of Dresden. He was depicted as an Ensign of the Guards in a scarlet tunic and wearing his single epaulette. He began his diplomatic career in 1790, being sent on a special mission to Emperor Leopold in that year. He then became British envoy to Brussels between 1792 and 1795 and Berlin between 1795 and 1799. It was now that he began to develop his study and serious interest in Grecian art for which he was to become world famous. Immediately prior to his appointment to the Ottoman Porte as Ambassador at Constantinople he married in 1799, Mary, the vivacious and attractive only child of William Nesbit Hamilton, an excessively wealthy soldier, landowner and member of Parliament. In 1801, Lord Elgin received permission from the Porte not only to "fix scaffolding around the ancient Temple of the Idols (the Parthenon) and to mold the ornamental sculpturing and visible figures thereon in plaster and gypsum", but also"to take away pieces of stone with old inscriptions thereon". It was not Elgin's original plan, but the constant injuries suffered by the sculptures of the Parthenon and other monuments at the hands of the Turks induced him to undertake their removal along with other antiquities. He then undertook the hazardous and expensive task of shipping the famous "Elgin Marbles" and other artifacts back to England. He elected to travel back overland through France arriving in Paris with his family early in May 1803. The Elgins were still in Paris when war was declared between England and France, and on the 18th May, 1803, Lord Elgin was made a prisoner of war. Lady Elgin wrote a series of letter to her mother, revealing her numerous concerns and anxieties during this period as well as the social gatherings with friends that included the Bonapartes. She was concerned with Lord Elgin's health and she records in her letter of the 28th May that the hotel where they were staying had a garden. "... where Elgin walks for I cannot get him to stir out. We are expecting a positive answer whether they will allow us to go or not". In late May a further disaster occurred when the ship carrying the precious Marbles was captured by the French Navy. Lady Elgin did everything she could to cheer`her husband up and on the 9th June she bought him a watch (number 1193) from Breguet. The ship with the marbles intact was recaptured on the 14th June. Although living in comfort, Lord Elgin remained a prisoner of war until 1806. Lady Elgin remained with him, having, as she records in letters, her portrait painted by the court painter François-Bascel- Simon Gérard (1770-1837) in April 1805. Gérard had painted Napoleon and his family including his mother Madam Mère, and under Louis XVIII was "Premier Peintre". The war had, however, put their marriage under considerable strain and the Elgins were divorced in 1808. Lady Elgin immediately remarried while Lord Elgin did so in 1810 to Elizabeth Oswald of Dunnikier (1790-1860), who recorded in her reminiscences that as a bride-to-be "In the middle of the company he took his watch off his neck, a valuable repeater made by Breguet, and put it around my neck - oh how I love his first gift...". In 1816 the British Government paid £35,000 to Lord Elgin for the "Elgin Marbles" and deposited them in the British Museum. They were said to have cost the Earl no less then £74,000. He became a Trustee of the British Museum in 1816 and President of the Society of Antiquities in 1823 holding both appointments up to the time of his death in Paris in 1841. He bought another Breguet, apparently a keyless one in a half hunter case, in the 1830's, and his interest in horology led him to acquire a mantel clock in a fine neo-classical case by Janvier, that has a dedication to him, and a long case regulator by another famous French horologist Ferdinand Berthoud.