France · c. 1790
Breguet's Parachute Shock-Protection System
Historical attributionOne of the earliest systematic attempts to protect a watch's most fragile component from everyday shock, establishing a design principle (a resiliently mounted pivot jewel) still used, in modernised form, in mechanical watches today.
Breguet's parachute suspends the balance-staff's lower pivot in a spring-loaded conical bushing, allowing the pivot assembly to yield slightly under shock rather than transmitting the full impact to the fragile pivot itself.
It predates modern trademarked systems such as Incabloc by roughly a century and a half, and is generally regarded by horological historians as the conceptual ancestor of all later balance-staff shock-protection systems.
How to verify this yourself
As with Breguet's other pre-modern-patent-era work, verify against Breguet's own workshop records and the company's published archival history rather than assuming a filed brevet exists in the modern sense; the Musée des Arts et Métiers and the Breguet company archive hold relevant primary material.
Manufacturers known to have used it
- Breguet
Sources & references
- Daniels, G., The Art of Breguet
- Breguet company archive, published historical materials
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.