Project Description
The watch pictured below is an antique Breguet & Fils French ¼ hour repeater we recently restored. It has three gong striking carillion automaton with two multicolor gold Greek figures and a Putti striking bells surrounding a center porcelain chapter ring of 22mm diameter. Cased in a rose gold open face case with rope twist decorated band. The movement is 58mm, gilt full plate, the balance cock is pierced and has a ruby end-stone, the dial side is beautifully decorated and repeating parts are exposed.
This watch was in rough condition when we received it for restoration. It did not run and the repeat functions were not working. The crystal was wrong and falling out, the movement was loose in the case. The case had holes in it and the bezel was badly torn and warped out of shape, it was paper thin and extremely delicate so it could not be safely repaired in the conventional manor of flame welding. we had Bruce Bullerwell from Lakes Region Jewelers do the case repairs using his laser welding machine, he did a wonderful job. We custom made several parts at our shop that were missing and broken and painstakingly restored the the movements fits and finishes. It is now functioning wonderfully and looks beautiful.
Breguet & Fils French ¼ hour repeater
