BREGUET N° 737, 13 Floréal An 9 - May 4, 1801 Gold repeating watch sold to the Russian Ambassador, Arkady Ivanovitch, Count Markoff. Round case on hinge, inside case with the master hallmark of the famous manufacturer Tavernier as well as the guarantee hallmarks of the period, back with guilloche and fluted caseband, cuvette with winding square, signed and numbered, Breguet N° 737. White enamel dial with Arabic numerals and blued steel hands, off-center fixing screw, railroad minute track, signed Breguet. Movement with key winding, three-arm spiral balance, "pare-chute" system, gong repeater with pendant release, visible barrel. D. 55 mm Gross weight 134.9 g We would like to thank Emmanuel Breguet and the Breguet archives for providing us with the following information. "According to our books, a repeating watch bearing the n° 737 with a Tavernier case was sold on 13 Floréal year 9 - May 4, 1801 - to the Russian ambassador for the price of 1560 Francs including a platinum chain. No return to the house afterwards". Our example is typical of the post-revolutionary production of the House of Breguet, a period of apogee when Abraham-Louis Breguet was one of the finest and most influential watchmakers of his time. As the Prince de Talleyrand once said, "That devil Breguet always wants to do things differently rather than better! Markoff's closeness to Talleyrand may explain the delivery of this watch to the ambassador, as the two were behind a secret clause when the Treaty of Paris was signed on October 10, 1801, putting an end to hostilities between France and Russia in the Second Coalition wars. Ambassador to Paris between 1801 and 1803, Count Arkady Ivanovitch Markoff (1747-1827), was first ambassador to Stockholm to Stockholm at the court of Gustavus III (1783), before becoming a member of Russia's College of Foreign Affairs of Foreign Affairs (1786), then in charge of Catherine II's correspondence. Retired in 1796, he returned to service following the tragic death of Emperor Paul I, assassinated on March 12, 1801. Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825) subsequently became one of Breguet's most prestigious customers, notably when he incognito passed his doorstep on April 2, 1814 at the Quai de l'Horloge, to order numerous pedometers for his armies, eight of which were delivered between 1820 and 1822. Many Russian aristocrats of the early 19th century turned to the Breguet, which aroused the fascination of Russian high society. In Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, we read these lines: "a dandy who goes to the boulevards (...) He strolls there at leisure, until the vigilant Breguet reminds him of the noon hour.