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A Breguet Pocket Watch, A Renoir, And The Mystery Of One Of The Greatest Breguet Collectors

Seeking shelter and distraction on a windy Sunday, some friends and I purchased tickets to the National Gallery in London to see the highly recommended "Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art" exhibition. When in doubt, spending a few hours in the company of Matisse, Kandinsky, and Gaugin is never time wasted.

Still shivering from the cold, we made our way down the stone steps of the Museum. Somewhat ironically, it was not Delacroix whom I wanted to see, but Renoir. His version of Delacroix's The Jewish Wedding In Morocco had recently popped up during my research on the world's first perpetual calendar wristwatch, a Breguet. Both had been purchased by Mr. Jean Dollfus. Or so I thought.

The "Dollfus Perpetual Calendar," the world's first perpetual calendar wristwatch.

That name was written in ink inside Breguet's archives next to the sale of said Breguet no. 2516 in 1932. And it was printed, this time in white, on the information card placed next to the Renoir I sought. "Commissioned by Jean Dollfus in 1876," it read.

"Jewish Wedding" (after Delacroix), by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

As I did the math and slowly came to the realization that 56 years had elapsed between the two purchases, it became clear that I had been chasing two men, not one: Jean Dollfus the industrialist, founder of Dollfus-Mieg et Cie, a textile company located in Mulhouse; and Jean Dollfus the grandson, successor of the company, and an avid Breguet collector.

Little is known about the second, except that he and his brother, Louis Dollfus purchased nine Breguet replica watches between 1922 and 1934, including a tourbillon pocket watch, a repeater, and a chronometer escapement pocket watch with Guillaume balance. Well, another has just resurfaced, a few weeks before my visit to Room Four of the Delacroix exhibition.

A live image of the Dollfus pocket watch, with some damage to the case.

Shortly after publishing my story on the Dollfus Perpetual Calendar, a reader from Switzerland sent me this private message through Instagram:

"Dear Sir,I write to you because I read your article on the Breguet 2516 with great interest. The last three paragraphs talk about Jean Dollfus. My father has another Breguet pocket watch that we believe Mr. Dollfus owned at one point. We have unsuccessfully tried to find out more about him. Would you be able to help??/p>

Attached to the reader's email were pictures of a superb 43 mm pocket watch, made during the peak years of Breguet's Art Deco period, almost intact and still in its original numbered box. I quickly contacted the brand, who confirmed our reader's hypothesis. It was purchased on August 25, 1926, by Jean Dollfus.

The current owner of the watch ?who has asked to remain anonymous ?says he "instantly fell in love with it?when he found it in 1991, at the "Art of Breguet" auction held by Habsburg S.A. Without hesitation, he acquired it for CHF 22,196.

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Despite its good condition, it is of lesser historical value when compared to other replica watches in the Dollfus collection, as it is one of many pocket replica watches with jumping hours produced by Audemars Piguet, Breguet, and Patek Philippe during the first quarter of the 20th century. However, it features a rare module, patented by Robert Cart in 1925, one year before Jean Dollfus purchased the pocket watch.

The central disc, on which the jumping hours are displayed, also acts as a minute indicator and makes a full rotation every 60 minutes. Vacheron Constantin and Gubelin also purchased the jumping and wandering module, but this example from Breguet is one of the finest examples we've seen in recent years.

Presented inside an Art Deco style case, the two-tone silvered dial is beautifully decorated with a large and very distinctive engine-turned arrow pointing to the outer Arabic minute ring. The mechanism is powered by a lever movement with a bi-metallic compensation balance, signed by Breguet.

Breguet, N° 1285 belonging to Jean Dollfus.

The current owner of the Dollfus Jumping Hours has reluctantly decided to part ways with his pocket watch to focus his collection on wristwatches. It will be part of the upcoming "Rare Watches" auction held by Christie's in Geneva on May 16th, and its estimate has been set between CHF 25,000 and CHF 45,000.

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