Breguet: Watchmaker, Aviator, Innovator’ Now at Bal Harbour Shops

Swiss watchmaker Breguet is an old salt when it comes to navigating the Atlantic, so it was no surprise to anyone last month when members of New York’s elite found themselves climbing aboard the USS Intrepid to toast the company’s rich history.

The celebration has since moved to South Florida, at the Breguet boutique in Bal Harbor Shops. The exhibit, titled “Breguet: Watchmaker, Aviator, Innovator,” hosts a variety of artifacts from the multi-faceted company, including the invention that secured Breguet a place in history: an accurate marine chronometer.

In the days before satellites, or even radio, a ship’s navigation was only as accurate as its shipboard time measurement. Keeping a clock accurate at sea had proved an incredibly difficult task, thanks to the forces exerted on its inner workings by the ocean’s never-ending waves. In 1815, Abraham-Louis Breguet made history by producing a new type of shipboard timepiece called a marine chronometer that was impervious to the movement of the sea.

Fast forward a hundred years and Abraham-Louis Breguet’s great-great grandson Louis-Charles was at the helm of the company overseeing efforts to provide accurate time measurements to the new industry of aviation. In order to accurately record fuel consumption as well as distance, Louis-Charles invented a complication called the chronograph that can start and stop measuring discrete intervals of time.

Louis-Charles went on to become an aviation pioneer, founding an airplane manufacturing company called La Société des Ateliers d’Aviation Louis Bréguet that provided planes to France’s navy and air force during World War I and World War II. The company later merged with the Dassault Group, which is currently engaged in engineering hybrid electric cars as well as aerospace equipment Louis-Charles also founded an airline that would eventually become Air France.

“Breguet: Watchmaker, Aviator, Innovator” will be open until July 29 at the The Breguet boutique, 9700 Collins Ave, Bal Harbour, FL 33154.

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Seth Semilof

Co-Founder & COO · Haute Time

Seth Semilof co-founded Haute Living and, with business partner Kamal Hotchandani, launched Haute Time, the brands' luxury timepiece site, to educate buyers about the best watches in the world and to showcase the passion of collectors and the CEOs who lead the great maisons. His love of watches began early: a TAG Heuer at 13, an Omega at 16, and his first Rolex at 20. Through Haute Time he has been honored to visit the greatest watch manufactures in the world and meet the master watchmakers behind them. He has also personally featured private collections exclusive to Haute Time, taking readers inside the watch boxes of Kevin Hart, Carmelo Anthony, Tony Robbins and Swizz Beatz.