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Maroondah Dam Trail Run (17 Feb 2013). 50 & 30 km event at Donnelly's Weir Rd, nearly finished. (fstop5.com)
Father and Son Reston, Virginia June 2011
Day 16 - My watch
This is the famous double dial watch that features decimal as well as 60 minute hours, we are told. But the second or decimal dial shows 60 units, with markings for 10, 20,30,40,50 and 60. It is not clear how this relates to a decimal day. Open Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823) and Antoine-Louis Breguet (1776–1858), Gold and Silver Double-Dial Desk Watch Showing Decimal and Traditional Time, c. 1795– after 1807, The Frick Collection, Bequest of Winthrop Kellogg Edey; photo: Michael Bodycomb Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 - 1823) Clockmaker Antoine-Louis Breguet (1776 - 1858) Clockmaker Gold and Silver Double-Dial Desk Watch Showing Decimal and Traditional Time, c. 1795-1807 gold and enamel, gilt brass, brass, and steel 2 7/8 in. x 2 7/8 in. x 13/16 in. (7.29 cm x 7.29 cm x 2.03 cm) Bequest of Winthrop Kellogg Edey, 1999. Accession number: 1999.5.154 The exhibition concludes with important watches and clocks by the innovative horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet and his son, Antoine-Louis Breguet, who, at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, created highly accurate movements set in sober and elegant cases. Writing in 1982 Winthrop Edey—who bequeathed his collection of clocks to the Frick in 1999—described the elder Breguet as “a phenomenon without parallel. He was the genius of his age, perhaps the most outstanding horologist of all time.” Indeed,Breguet’s combination of technical skill, refined design, and exquisite craftsmanship gave him an unrivaled reputation. His patrons included Louis XVI, Napoleon, and most of the civil and political leaders of his day A modern looking watch by the Breguets is one of the very few watches or clocks to include both traditional and decimal dials. The decimal system, introduced during the French Revolution, affected not only weights and measures, but also time. (Decimal time divided the day into ten hours and the year into ten months.) This new division of time, however, proved impossible to enforce: the Republican calendar, introduced on the autumnal equinox in 1792, remained in use for only thirteen years; the decimalization of the day, issued by a 1793 decree, was abandoned in less than eighteen months. The Breguet watch was probably made shortly before or after Abraham-Louis returned to Paris from Switzerland in April 1795. The traditional twelve-hour dial was made after 1807, when his son joined the business. The provenance of the watch is notable as well: it belonged to the influential politician and art collector Antoine-César Praslin, duc de Choiseul.
See photo in original gallery.
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