No. 1734, a watch with dumb repeater, case

of solid gold with engine-turned barleycorn [design] and reeded case edge,

enamel dial with Arabic numerals, Breguet hands

in blued steel, gilt copper cuvette [dust cover], piston for quarter-hour repeater

in the pendant, ruby cylinder escapement,

pare-chute [Breguet shock mounting for balance staff], compensated balance, jeweled

in rubies. [Sold] for the price of 1368 francs.

[Description]

Certified to conform to our books of the period. Done at

Paris 31 December 2001.

Notes on the Certificate translation

The accompanying translation of the Certificate for Breguet watch No. 1734 is a line-by-line translation of the text of the original certificate. That is, each line in the translation corresponds to the same line in the original.

The block at the top on the certificate contains a table of the Equation of Time, the difference between Local Apparent (Solar) Time [LAT] (which measures the angular separation between the arc including the Sun as seen by an observer and the north and south points of his horizon, and the observer’s meridian, which is the arc passing through the observer’s north point, zenith, and south point) and Local Mean (Solar) Time [LMT] (which measures the angular separation between the corresponding arc containing the fictitious mean Sun, which has a uniform component of eastward movement with respect to the fixed stars, and the observer’s meridian) in the sense:

Equation of Time = LAT – LMT.

Due to the fact that the Earth’s orbit about the Sun is elliptical, not circular, and the Earth’s axis of rotation is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, the apparent Sun moves at varying rates across the sky during the year, causing LAT to lag and lead a truly uniform time scale, as given by LMT, by as much as –14 minutes 14 seconds and +16 minutes 19 seconds over the course of a year. This difference is periodic with a one-year period. The values given in this table on the Certificate are very close to the corresponding modern values.

"Cuvette" is the French horological term for the dust cover under the case back to protect the back of the movement. For No. 1734 the cuvette is pierced with a hole for the winding key for the watch and engraved with an arrow showing the direction of winding (clockwise), the watch number, and the Breguet signature.