The first tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet

Collecting · · by Christian Bissener


Gilt movement of a pocket chronometer by John Arnold with tourbillon and an engraved dedication to Breguet’s homage

A milestone in watchmaking: the first tourbillon finished by Abraham-Louis Breguet. He built it into an early chronometer by John Arnold and gave it in 1808 to Arnold’s son, John Roger Arnold, as a homage to the father, who had worked on the development of the tourbillon but could not finish it, having died in 1799.