Abraham-Louis Perrelet was born 280 years ago and with him a new philosophy of making timepieces was born too. "Smart luxury" accurately describes the company's art of watch making.
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It was at the family farm in Le Locle, under the attentive eye of Abraham-Louis, that during the long winter days, Daniel Perrelet, his farmer and carpenter father, manufactured some extremely refined tools for the watchmakers of the region. Thus under the influence of this enterprising father, he was introduced at a very early age to little jobs, such as the fling down of saws and the making of small bellows.
He quickly became extremely interested in these watchmaking trades, which kept on developing at the beginning of the century. With the approach of manhood, he decided to go into them on a full-time basis, already aware that his life was going to very much involved with what he was producing. His ingenuity overcame all obstacles. In the face of a lack of inadequate tooling, he set about producing a certain number of precision instruments. He is notably credited with inventing the driving-in tool and the machine for fling cogs. Finally he got round to the heart of his main objective – or rather of his very soul: the watch movement.
Could one conceive a mechanism which, from one single initial impulse, would continue to function indefinitely? This was the question that occupied the mind of our inventor. This problem had no solution: the laws of modern physics had swept aside this old dream once and for all. Nevertheless, Abraham-Louis Perrelet was the craftsman who came closest to the impossible solution.
From that moment on, Abraham-Louis Perrelet devoted most of his efforts to devising a system that would replace the task of winding one’s watch every day. He kept on innovating, and applying his intelligence, imagination and clear-sightedness and he completed a series of new techniques destined to improve the running of timekeepers.
Around 1770, he embarked on finding an absolutely simple yet effective solution to wind a watch that was, unbeknown to him at the time, going revolutionize the world of watch making. He was the first to develop a rotating, oscillating weight mounted on the movement that follows the movements of the wearer and thus serves to wind the mainspring of the movement. This trailblazing invention was officially recognized in 1777.
Harnessing the natural energy of the wearer brought Abraham Louis to his next invention. In 1780, he created the first pedometer, measuring the steps and distance while walking. He also became the first to manufacture a watch with an escapement, a cylinder escapement, a duplex escapement, calendar escapement and an equation escapement. He further fine-tuned the finishing, improved the pinions, the wheels, the escapement and the winding mechanism.
His reputation grew and soon he was being consulted for his opinion by people everywhere. Abraham-Louis Perrelet never ceased to be amazed. His skill and extraordinary manual dexterity did not diminish with age. As evidence, the International Watchmaking Museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds has, what is without doubt, one of the very last pieces made by this genial craftsman, when he was 96 years old.
Today, the company Perrelet is the synonymous with inventiveness, authenticity and quality. Positioning itself in the "smart luxury" sector, Perrelet largely favours extremely reliable base calibres upon which interesting and useful additional functions and complications are added. Due to its industrial base, the company is able to appeal and satisfy the expectations even of the most avid watch connoisseur. ■