[CPProt.net] Stolen watch tells a story

[Ton Cremers]

Stolen watch tells a story
The Associated Press


NEW YORK - Many fashion brands can boast Hollywood royalty as clients, but few have 
loyal royal fans the way Breguet does.

In 1783 a man believed to be one of Marie Antoinette´s lovers ordered a watch for the French 
queen that had every complication known to watchmakers at the time, which, notes current 
Breguet president Nicholas Hayek, also means just about every mechanical complication 
known to watchmakers now. It had a perpetual calendar that adjusted for leap years, a 
repeater that chimed out the hours, quarter hours and minutes, and it tracked both solar time 
and mean time. It had a thermometer and a power-reserve indicator.

The watch actually wasn´t finished until 44 years later, 10 years after Marie Antoinette´s death 
and four years after A.L. Breguet´s. His trusted assistants carried on, and eventually the 
watch had a new owner: Marquis de Garoye of Paris, according to a 2004 issue of 
WatchTime devoted entirely to Breguet and the company´s rich history.

It changed hands again a few more times until it was bought by Sir David Lionel Salomons. 
He bequeathed the watch to his daughter, who left it to the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic 
Art in Jerusalem. It was displayed there until 1983 when burglars struck the museum - and 
took much of the Salomons collection. The most expensive piece of the collection was the 
Marie Antoinette watch. It has never been recovered.

"I would have put up a $10 million reward," says Hayek, "but we had the same issue with the 
Omega (watch) that was the first on the moon. The insurance company says it´s their watch, I 
said it´s our watch and the astronaut said it´s his watch. If we find the Marie Antoinette, the 
museum, the insurance company and Breguet will all say `It´s my watch."´

(Omega and Breguet are both part of the Swatch Group.)

Hayek isn´t sure if the thieves knew the value of the watch - or if the watch still exists. "This 
is a watch that should be treated well. You have to change the oil inside and have the inside 
checked out to make sure everything inside works."

The Marie Antoinette was one of the oldest watches in the world still ticking when it was 
stolen, but Breguet has a 230-year-old pocketwatch in its archives as well as several 200-
year-old watches.

A watch´s provenance can add significantly to its value, says Ed Faber, president of New 
York´s Aaron Faber Gallery. He notes the recent sale of an Omega watch that John F. 
Kennedy wore at his 1961 inauguration for $420,000. Without the history that came with it, 
the watch itself was probably worth $1,000, Faber estimates.

Since watches became portable in the 14th century, they´ve been the very special prizes of 
wealthy people who all try to outdo each other on the pedigree and complexity of their 
watches.

Twentieth-century industrialist Henry Graves had an ongoing watch competition with friends 
Henry Ford and Henry Frick; Graves commissioned Patek Philippe to make the most 
expensive watch in the world, according to Faber. "Maybe he paid $30,000, which was a 
king´s ransom. It sold at Sotheby´s for $11 million a few years ago."

Few important watches over the past 500 years ended up in the trash because they were in 
poor condition or didn´t work anymore. It´s more likely they were passed through families, 
sold at auction or stolen, Faber says.

"A watch is one of the few things that survives time. It´s different that art because a watch is 
associated with personality. It´s also transgender. Men can own and collect them. Watches 
are intimate. They´re worn on the wrist and this creates an aura and legend of the watch 
itself," he says.

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