Born in Neuchâtel in Switzerland, Abraham Louis Breguet made exceptionally crafted clocks, chronometers and watches. Seeking precision, he perfected watch and clock movements and invented new escapements. Breguet’s watches with complications were hugely successful at European courts, and Queen Marie Antoinette’s patronage did much to increase his renown. He also supplied Emperor Napoleon I and the Queen of Naples, Caroline Murat, for whom he created the first wristwatch around 1810. Charles Félix de Choiseul-Praslin, who financed the work of his friend Breguet several times, acquired this double-sided watch, with two dials and an extremely sophisticated mechanism, in 1805. The white enamel dial on the recto indicates the time and has a chronometer and a perpetual calendar. The dial on the verso, in finely chased gold, shows the phases of the Moon.
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