For Russia, With Love

Next week the horologists at Breguet, one of Switzerland's oldest watchmakers (founded in Neuchâtel in 1775), will celebrate the company's historical link to Russia with an exhibit at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Founder A.L. Breguet had a long, close relationship with the Russian ruling family, and even secured imperial warrants as watchmaker to the Czar and Russian navy.

The exhibit, which runs through September 26th, features watches from private collections around the world as well as from such institutions as the Louvre and the British Museum. More than 100 antique timepieces are on show, including a military pace-counter that once belonged to Czar Alexander I and carriage clocks made for Napoleon Bonaparte. Synchronized to the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, Breguet is issuing a limited edition of 300 wristwatches — 100 each in white, yellow and rose gold — which are engraved on the back with an image of Peter the Great.

Buyers beware: they cost between $17,100 and $22,100, and are only available in selected Breguet boutiques. But wristwatch fetishists can gaze at them for free at www.breguet.com.

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