Tag: wa

museum-of-artifacts:

The most expensive pocket watch in the world made for Marie Antoinette

This watch was originally designed by Breguet himself and has more pieces (823) than an iPhone. It’s self winding, has a minute repeater, perpetual calendar, equation of time, jumping hour, power reserve indicator, and a bimetallic thermometer – everything but MMS messaging. It took forty-four years for the original to be constructed and Breguet and Marie Antoinette both died before it was completed. Ultimately, the original watch disappeared, never to be seen again. When Swatch acquired Breguet, an Indiana Jones style quest for the watch began. When they came up short they reproduced the watch using only the images of the original. Breguet has received offers in the eight digit range, but still refuse to sell.

clarissassfray:

“I’m a warrior,” he said. “I was brought up as a warrior. I didn’t have toys, I had weapons. I slept with a wooden sword until I was five. My first books were medieval demonologies with illuminated pages. The first songs I learned were chants to banish demons…”{x}