Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Abraham-Louis Breguet hailed from a bourgeois Protestant family that included several lawyers, teachers, pastors and merchants, but his own journey as a watchmaker began in his teens after his mother remarried one upon his father’s death.

Sent to Paris at the age of 15, he set up his atelier in 1775 on the Ile de la Cité and began his career with a series of inventions, including the automatic watch (known as perpétuelle), the gong spring for repeater watches, and the first shock-absorber device (the pare-chute).