Why don't we talk more about ...... Perrelet?
Abraham-Louis Perrelet (9 January 1729 – 1826) was a Swiss horologist. He was born in Neuchâtel, then in the Principality of Neuchâtel.
At age 20 he left his family farm and carpentry business to work independently and so became his own master watchmaker.
In 1777, Perrelet invented a self-winding mechanism for automatic watches. It worked on the same principle as a modern wristwatch, and was designed to wind as the owner walked, using an oscillating weight inside the large watch that moved up and down.
The Geneva Society of Arts reported in 1777 that fifteen minutes walking was necessary to wind the watch sufficiently for eight days, and the following year reported that it was selling well.Perrelet is thus widely acknowledged as the inventor of the "automatic" watch.
Perrelet sold some of his watches to watchmaking luminary, Abraham-Louis Breguet around 1780, who improved upon the mechanism in his own version of the design, calling his watches "perpetuelles", the French word for perpetual. They did not work reliably and Breguet stopped producing them around 1810.
Louis-Frédéric Perrelet (1781–1852), a grandson of Abraham-Louis Perrelet, was trained by his grandfather and went into business in Paris. Louis-Frédéric invented marine watches with measuring instruments and a split-second precision chronograph He won one of three Lalande awards for 1830.
Perrelet produced its first Double rotor model in 1995 and filed a patent for the design. This timepiece featured a single rotor visible on the dial side and a second one lying beneath it, enabling the wearer to see the mechanism in motion through the front of the watch. The Double Rotor model is Perrelet's most famous timepiece and resulted from a collaboration with AHCI master watchmaker Paul Gerber.
Moving forward the brand had to fight against overpowering competitors. In 2004, Perrelet was aquired by the Festina Group of Barcelona who still own them to this day. .
My name is Rich and I am building a collection of unique complications. I know it sounds more like the way you start a watch museum and not a personal collection. So far I have a Tourbillion, Retrogra...
Thanks for this interesting article!
I first paid attention to Perrelet when the turbine models starting pouring out in around 2009. Really wanted one but at the time I was maxed out at s 500 buck watch.
Was quite entranced by the dial side turbine, a fidget spinner like the MAD1 from MB&F
Now over a decade later I’d utterly forgot about their existence, I guess the Festina group doesn’t market much for the brand.
Thanks for informing us better on its history 👍
I first paid attention to Perrelet when the turbine models starting pouring out in around 2009. Really wanted one but at the time I was maxed out at s 500 buck watch.
Was quite entranced by the dial side turbine, a fidget spinner like the MAD1 from MB&F
Now over a decade later I’d utterly forgot about their existence, I guess the Festina group doesn’t market much for the brand.
Thanks for informing us better on its history 👍
Interesting...I didn't realize Festina owned them.