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The General Director of Arnold & Son Eric Loth speaks about facts, which prove the involvement of John Arnold in creation of first ever tourbillon!
“John Arnold and Breguet were close friends and shared ideas with each other. Their sons even worked together. There are reasons to believe that Arnold participated in creation of tourbillon – says Eric Loth. – We consider there are three facts which points to the possibility Arnold took part in tourbillon creation.
Firstly, the first tourbillon created by Breguet was installed in watches of Arnold & Son. These watches are recorded in archives under “283” number. Arnold provided those watches with lock escapement and Breguet equipped them with rotation carriage. They are currently owned by one famous collector.
Secondly, when Arnold died, Breguet made the second example of those watches and, in a memory of his friend, presented it as a gift to son of Arnold, John Roger. Today you can see it in one of the largest museum of London. The watch is engraved with the following words: “To John Roger in a memory of my good friend John Arnold (one of my first tourbillons in watches of John Arnold)”. Hardly Breguet would have installed his tourbillon in the watches of Arnold, if Arnold hadn’t participated in its creation.
All these are circumstantial evidences. But there is a direct one. Thirdly, we have a book of one British watchmaker, who visited Breguet. And it says:
“In Breguet’s workshop I saw a so-called tourbillon – mechanism for prevention of gravity. I already saw a similar device in Arnold’s workshop 40 years ago.”
All these could be a mere surmises if there wasn’t the patent of Breguet. It turned out that only the carriage of tourbillon was patented, but not the escapement. All this proves that Arnold and Breguet certainly collaborated.
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