Marie-Antoinette's Breguet Watch

The ambitious Frenchman's self-winding watches fascinated Marie-Antoinette. Her husband, Louis XVI, was also impressed with them and owned several. One day the doomed Queen decided that she wanted a watch with a perpetual repeating calendar as well as a self-winding mechanism and challenged the watchmaker to craft one. Hearing of this, an admirer, perhaps Count Axel Fersen, commissioned probably the most famous watch of all time for his beautiful Queen - the Marie-Antoinette. This amazing watch had a perpetual calender, a chiming repeater, a thermemeter, a power-reserve indicator and a chronograph. It was also lovely looking.

Unfortunately, the Breguet watch wasn't completed until 1827, long after the Queen was sent to the guillotine.

Here is a video about the watch:
Marie-Antoinette Watch

Next Time: The amazing story of the theft and possible recovery of the Marie-Antoinette watch.