Breguet
Company Timeline for the watchmaking business of Breguet:
1775 - Founded in Paris by Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823).
1780 - Launch of its first self-winding watch (the "Perpetuelle").
1790 - Invention of the Pare-Chute, an anti-shock device.
1801 - Patent of the Tourbillon Regulator.
1822 - Publication of the firm's first commercial catalogue. Firm at this time known as Breguet et fils.
1823 - Abraham-Louis Breguet dies, and his son Antoine-Louis takes charge of the Breguet firm.
1830 - First watch without key-driven winding mechanism.
1833 - Louis-Clément-François Breguet (1804-1883), grandson of the founder, becomes head of the firm upon the retirement of his father. Firm renamed Breguet, Neveu et Cie.
1840 - In parallel with the manufacture of wristwatches, the firm branches out to make electrical apparatus for telegraphy and physics.
1845 - Louis-Clément Breguet is award the Legion of Honor in recognition of his work on the electric telegraph.
1856 - Work on electric clocks.
1866 - Patent on a tuning-fork clock.
1870 - Louis-Clément Breguet decides to devote his attention to the business of making electrical apparatus for telegraphy, railroad signaling, timekeeping, physiology, physics, and mining. The watch-making portion of the company is sold by Breguet descendants to Edward Brown Jewelers, London. Brown had been the factory manager. The watching making firm continues to market itself under the name of "Breguet." The electrical instrument business trades first under the name of "Breguet fabricant" and from 1881 onward, "Maison Breguet."
1939 - Patent of sidereal timepiece.
1970 - Breguet brand taken over by the brothers Pierre and Jacques Chaumet, Parisian jewellers.
1976 - Transfer of Breguet workshops to Le Brassus, Switzerland.
1987 - Breguet goes bankrupt and is bought by the finance company, Investors Corporation (Investcorp). The brand moved into the South East Asian market.
1991 - Wristwatch with perpetual equation of time.
1991 - Valdar was bought and folded into Groupe Horloger Breguet (GHB), still under the ownership of Investcorp.
1992 - Nouvelle Lemania, a manufacturer of watch movements, was brought into GHB.
1999 - Swatch Group purchased GHB.
