Breguet Marie Antoinette Watch to go on Show in London

At the Science Museum.

The fabled Breguet no. 160 “Marie Antoinette” (pictured above, image credit Baruch Coutts) was made for the last queen of France, but was so complicated that it took decades to complete, by which time the queen was long dead. Stolen in 1983 and then recovered in 2007, the legendary watch started by Abraham-Louis Breguet will be on display for the first time outside of the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art In Jerusalem since its recovery.

From December 12, the Breguet Marie Antoinette will be on show at the Science Museum in London (which is also home to important George Daniels creations, including the unfinished watch and the Space Traveller II). The Breguet Marie Antoinette is part of Versailles: Science and Splendour, an exhibition dedicated to the scientific and technology discoveries related to the French royal court in the 17th and 18th centuries. The exhibition explores a 120-year span of scientific progress at Versailles, illustrating the scientific endeavours accomplished during the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI.

The mythical watch

While the exhibition will include over 100 exhibits, watch enthusiasts will know the highlight is Breguet no. 160, the grand complication commissioned in 1783, reputedly by Marie Antoinette’s lover. A no-expense-spared commission, watch no. 160 was only completed in 1827, having been delayed by A.-L. Breguet’s exile during the French Revolution. By the time of its completion, Marie Antoinette had been executed in 1793 during the revolution, while A.-L. Breguet himself had died in 1823.

With a movement made up of over 820 components, the Marie Antoinette watch boasts a dozen compilations, including perpétuelle automatic winding, minute repeater, perpetual calendar, equation of time, independent seconds, power reserve indicator, and thermometer. The Marie Antoinette was so complex it cost multiples of the next most-complicated Breguet ever made, watch no. 92 made for the Duc de Praslin. The Marie Antoinette remained the most-complicated-watch-ever for decades, until the 20th century.