Lot 209

Breguet, No. 698, Case No. 698, 60 mm, 151 g, circa 1801
An important and large "Montre Souscription à Tact" - sold to Monsieur le Baron de Livourne on the 3rd of Messidor in the 9th year of revolution (= June 22nd 1801) for 1060 Francs - with Breguet certificate no. 3458
Case: silver, engine-turned, pink gold fillets. Dial: small eccentric pink gold dial with radial Roman numerals. Movm.: bridge movement, keywind, ruby cylinder escapement, three-arm gold ring balance, shock protection-"parachute".
Front and back with lavish radial engine-turned case decoration, revolving centre of the front lid with applied pink gold arrow pointer indicating the hours, surrounded by two different-sized touch studs and pearls.
"Montre à Tact"
Breguet was the first maker to come up with the design for this kind of watch - he sold the first one early in 1799 to Madame Betancourt, the wife of his best friend. He continued producing the watches in different variations, some with quite large touch pieces (like this watch) and some with small ones. The price for these watches that Breguet created for the wealthiest of his customers was between 1,500 and 3,000 francs. This was a truly enormous sum of money in the early 19th century, nevertheless the watches were highly sought after at the time. One of the reasons for their popularity was that at the time it was considered quite unseemly to read the time in public; these expensive pieces made it possible to tell the time without taking the watch out of ones pocket. Breguet remained almost the only one to create this kind of watch; only Le Roy Horloger de S.A.I et R. Madame à Paris and very few others followed in his footsteps. Le Roy created a number of such watches; his most expensive one was made for the Prince of Hesse. It had diamond touch pieces.
A nearly identical watch was exhibited as part of the collection "Breguet at the Louvre" in 2009, illustrated and described on page 141ff of the exhibition catalogue.
Charles Godefroy Baron Redon de Belleville (1748-1820) was appointed Consul of Livorno by Napoleon Bonaparte on February 3, 1796 - Livorno was of high strategic importance during Napoleon’s Italian campaign.
In September 1797 Belleville worked at the consulate in Genoa and provided such enthusiastic support for the Egyptian expedition that Napoleon sent him complimentary letters during his stay in Malta: "As soon as we have settled in one place I will let you know our requirements and I have no doubt that you will work on them with that passionate dedication that characterises you and that you have just shown us during embarkation in Genoa". (Napoleon, "Correspondance General", Part II, 205, p. 139, L 2512, May 28, 1798).
On November 25, 1799 Belleville was appointed deputy of Deux-Sèvres in the Corps Législatif; he resigned on November 23, 1800 because Napoleon had appointed him Commissioner General for trade relations in Italy and Tuscany as well as all Italian harbours between La Spezia and Naples on October 27, 1800 in Livorno. Afterwards he was appointed Commissioner General in Madrid; he asked to be recalled in 1804.
One day when he was received by Napoleon in Malmaison, Napoleon suddenly questioned him on the situation in Spain.
"What do they say about me at court in Madrid? " Belleville replied "They say that you are preparing for the throne and that you will vest yourself with the regalia of the royal house." "And what do you think of this?" "I think that Washington had no need of a crown and that the First Citizen could change his situation for the worse by becoming the last among the sovereigns".
On February 25, 1804 Napoleon made him prefect of Loire-Inférieure.
Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godefroy_Redon_de_Belleville