Marie Antoinette requested a Breguet while she was incarcerated at the end of her life. She didn't live to see it completed, but there's no evidence that she knew this watch was being made for her. It ended up in the collection of David Thummans who donates it to the Museum of Islamic Art here in Jerusalem. The authorities took every avenue they could try and locate the watch after it disappeared off the face of the Earth. But yes, this incredible watch that was on the most significant pieces ever to be made has been relocated again. And it's now on display after yet another adventure in its long life.
Called "a poem in clockwork," the self-winding Breguet watch made for Marie Antoinette was meant to be the most beautiful example of mechanical art in the world. Yet when she was imprisoned in the Tour du Temple, she wanted only a simple watch that would mark the passing of the hours until her meeting with the guillotine. Listen as Rebecca Struthers, the watchmaker, antiquarian horologist, and author of the Hands of Time talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how our need to keep time has shaped watchmaking history, and how, in turn, the development of watches has shaped human culture and society. Other topics include the precise and painstaking craft of bespoke watchmaking and the challenge of restoring watches from another time.