The Breguet No. 2639 was ordered on 8 June 1810 by Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, who asked for “a watch for a bracelet with minute repeater”, quoted at 5,000 francs. The workshop recorded it under the unusual name “repeater in oblong form for bracelet”. It had an oblong case, a lever escapement (then called a “free escapement”), a minute repeater and a thermometer, and it was worn on a bracelet of hair entwined with gold thread. Making it took 34 operations by 17 people. It was billed at 4,800 francs in December 1811, after which the minute system was modified and the original guilloché dial was replaced with a silver dial with Arabic numerals, apparently at the Queen’s request. The watch was finished on 21 December 1812. It matters because it is widely cited as the first wristwatch, at a time when watches were carried in the pocket.

Caroline Murat, born Caroline Bonaparte and wife of Joachim Murat, was a major client of Abraham-Louis Breguet and reportedly owned more than 30 of his timepieces. The archives trace No. 2639 only a little further: on 8 March 1849 her daughter, Countess Rasponi (Louise Murat), brought it in for a repair costing 80 francs, and in August 1855 she had new keys made. That is the last record the house holds. No sketch of the watch survives in the archives, and its present location is unknown to collectors and specialists. In 2002 Breguet launched the Reine de Naples collection as a free interpretation of this first wristwatch, with an oval case, an off-centre dial and, on some models, a plaited strap or a power reserve display at 12 o’clock. The photograph on this page shows the handwritten entry for No. 2639 in the Breguet workshop ledger, not the lost watch itself.

The watch community treats No. 2639 as a founding legend of the wristwatch, and Breguet supports its claim with the original archive records. The title of “first” is still debated: historians also point to an “armed watch” given to Elizabeth I in 1571 and to a bracelet watch made in 1806 for Joséphine de Beauharnais, often called the oldest surviving example. Because the original has never resurfaced, it has no auction history. Its modern descendant gets a warm but measured reception: aBlogtoWatch noted that the Reine de Naples looks better on the wrist than in photos and is a strong choice among unconventionally shaped watches, while observing that its diamond-set precious metal formula is fairly conventional for luxury ladies’ watches. The original No. 2639 was a unique piece and is lost; Breguet‘s Reine de Naples collection, which it inspired, is still in production with new references.