A stunning watch that was designed for Marie Antoinette but completed decades after she was guillotined is set to go on display in the UK for the first time.
The Breguet No. 160 – named after the masterful watchmaker who created it for France’s last queen – will be exhibited at the Science Museum from next month.
Abraham-Louis Breguet was given an unlimited budget to craft an exceptional timepiece for the famously opulent wife of King Louis XVI.
The king and queen were beheaded in 1793 amid the French revolution.
But Breguet’s creation, which was crafted from precious materials that included rubies, sapphires, platinum and gold, was not completed until the 1820s – after the death of watchmaker himself in 1823.
It boasts a clear crystal dial that reveals its expertly refined mechanisms inside.
The watch’s 823 parts include mechanisms supporting the sounding of the hour, quarter hour and minute; a perpetual calendar corrected for the leap year; a thermometer, and an independent second hand that acts as a stopwatch.
A stunning watch that was designed for Marie Antoinette but completed decades after she was guillotined is set to go on display in the UK for the first time
Marie Antoinette was only 14 and Louis just 15 when they married and received two million francs worth of jewellery from her French father-in-law
The watch is being exhibited as part of new exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour.
The display will take visitors on a 120-year journey through the evolution of science at Versailles.
It will explore how the monarchs Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI encouraged scientific pursuit.
Marie Antoinette was the daughter of Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor.
He betrothed her to King Louis XVI to strengthen ties between France and Austria, her native country.
Marie Antoinette was only 14 and Louis just 15 when they married and received two million francs worth of jewellery from her French father-in-law.
Her jewellery collection was by far the biggest of any French queen and rivalled only by Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
By the end of 1776, Marie Antoinette had a dress allowance of 150,000 livres, at a time when the price of an an average house in a French town was 200 livres.
As she gambled, partied and lavished money on whatever took her fancy, she racked up bills of nearly 500,000 livres.
The queen had a personal coiffeur who designed her own 4ft tall hair-do that boasted a replica of the French warship La Belle Poule, complete with four masts, sails and jewelled portholes.
But her rampant extravagance contrasted dramatically with the plight of ordinary French people and ultimately contributed to her downfall.
The Breguet No. 160 – named after the masterful watchmaker who created it for France’s last queen – will be exhibited at the Science Museum from next month
The watch’s 823 parts include mechanisms supporting the sounding of the hour, quarter hour and minute; a perpetual calendar corrected for the leap year; a thermometer, and an independent second hand that acts as a stopwatch
The stunning watch is being displayed in the UK for the first time ever from next month
Her husband’s rule came to end in 1792 and he was put to death in January the following year, after being found guilty of treason.
The rule of Louis XVI came to an end in 1792. The former king was executed on January 21, 1793, after he was found guilty of treason.
Marie Antoinette was herself put on trial and executed on October 16, 1793.
Sir Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘This glorious watch will thrill visitors to Versailles: Science and Splendour, and is one of the most remarkable items we have ever secured.
‘Even in the smallest details, the watch perfectly encapsulates meticulous engineering and a dedication to knowledge and beauty, ideals which are echoed throughout our exhibition and at Versailles itself.’
There were no gems to be seen when Marie Antoinette was guillotined in 1793
Marie Antoinette was only 14 and Louis just 15 when they married and received two million francs worth of jewellery from her French father-in-law
David Rooney, author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks, said: ‘The world’s most famed watch, from history’s most celebrated maker, is a true masterpiece.
‘It came from an age of outstanding invention. In its myriad complications it represents, in exquisite miniature, the cycles of our very existence.
‘Now, Breguet’s horological tour-de-force will delight all who visit this wonderful exhibition.’
Versailles: Science and Splendour will open at the Science Museum from Thursday, December 12, 2024 to Monday, April 21, 2025.
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