According to the Archives of Montres Breguet, the movement of the present chronometer watch was made in 1924. It was encased in the matte gold case with chiseled band and sold to Louis Harrison Dulles on 19 February 1960 for 4,000 new Francs, a considerable sum at the time.
Sold to one of Breguet’s best clients of the early 20th century, this high precision watch stands out by its excellent overall condition.
The three-quarter plate construction of the movement with Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement is in the style of English pocket chronometers. The high precision of the movement is underlined by the use of a Guillaume balance with gold meantime and temperature adjustments screws combined with a blued steel balance spring.
Concluding from the weight of the substantial case back it contains an anti-magnetic shield to protect the movement from external magnetic influences.
The case furthermore has the unusual feature of a lever in the band at 10 o’clock which locks or unlocks the winding system, important during timing observations.
Louis Harrison Dulles Jr. was a passionate watch collector and an important and regular client of Breguet. Born in Philadelphia in 1899, he married Grace Thorne Crossman on 19 August 1921, shortly after the death of his father, the financier L. Harrison Dulles. Louis Harrison Dulles Jr. was reported in the New York Tribune on March 7, 1920 as the guest of honour of the Rainy Day Club at the Hotel Astor in New York the previous Wednesday, playing the violin, accompanied by Mrs James. N. Burt. He died in Montreux,
Switzerland in 1971.
It is thought that Louis Harrison Dulles was the brother of Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969), first civilian Director (1953-1961) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a member of the Warren Commission, John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), US Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Eleanor Lansing Dulles (1885-1996), author, teacher and government employee.
The Dulles siblings were members of a diplomatic dynasty which spanned three generations: their grandfather, John Watson Foster, served as US Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison, their mother's sister was the wife of Robert Lansing, US Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson.
His name is notably mentioned in Breguet - Watchmakers since 1775 by Emmanuel Breguet, chapter ‘The Century of the Brown Family 1870-1970’, p. 320: “The firm's clientele was now distributed geographically as far as Japan and the United States and included such striking figures as the Maharajah of Kapurthala, Prince Mirza of Persia, King Fouad I of Egypt and the American L.H. Dulles".
Other watches known to date sold by Breguet to Mr. and Mrs. Dulles include the following, listed after the sale dates:
No. 3701 originally sold on 22 September 1894 for 2,650 Francs, bought back from Cherif Pacha on 28 February 1927 for 8,000 Francs and sold on the same day and for the same amount to Monsieur L.H. Dulles:
An 18K gold openface quarter repeating perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with phases of the moon and independent centre seconds
No. 1715 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 4 June 1927 for 6,700 Francs:
An 18K white gold "chronoscope" or wandering hours watch, sold in this saleroom on 16 November 2006, lot 299
No. 1939 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 7 January 1928 for 7,040 Francs:
An 18K gold hunter case keyless lever chronometer watch
No. 1648 sold to Madame Dulles on 18 December 1928 for 31,000 old Francs:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar watch with winding indicator, equation of time, phases and age of the moon
No. 1639 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 29 July 1929 for 40,000 Francs:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar watch with phases of the moon, equation of time and sunrise/sunset indication, calculated for the latitude of New York
No. 926, originally sold on 1 February 1926 to Jean Dollfus for the amount of 20,000 Francs, bought back in 1954 and sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 3 September 1954:
An 18K gold openface keyless one minute tourbillon watch with Guillaume balance and Neuchâtel Bulletin d'Observatoire
No. 2524 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 22 October 1954:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with centre seconds and phases of the moon
No. 3357 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 22 November 1959 for 900,000 old Francs:
An 18K two colour gold openface keyless watch with one minute tourbillon and power reserve
No. 4580, the present watch, sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 19 February 1960 for 4,000 new Francs:
An 18K gold keyless pocket chronometer with power reserve
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