Marie Antoinette Watch Adultery Larceny Perpetual Motion eBook John Biggs
Download As PDF : Marie Antoinette Watch Adultery Larceny Perpetual Motion eBook John Biggs 
Across continents and into and out of the hands of royalty, revolutionaries, smugglers, thieves, and the world’s greatest tech engineers, was Marie Antoinette’s watch, the “160,” worth an estimated $40 million in today’s dollars. Perhaps the most sought after personal technology device of the last 200 years, the timepiece, designed by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet, is the launching point for a thrilling and fluidly woven set of narratives that are, in part, forbidden love story, historical document, and police procedural.
Marie Antoinette Watch Adultery Larceny Perpetual Motion eBook John Biggs
I devoured this book on a long international flight. Overall, I liked it, with some major reservations. I am a watch aficionado, and there were too many little omissions or inaccuracies in this book.The book combines several narratives:
- About A.L. Breguet, perhaps the most iconic individual watch maker of all time, and his life and career. I enjoyed this a lot. I did not know that Breguet created the first wristwatch in 1810, for example. I wish there was more detail about his work on escapements and springs.
- About Marie Antoinette, her lover, and Revolutionary France. Fascinating mention: she and the king bought and owned hundreds of timepieces in their lifetimes!
- About the theft and eventual recovery of the largest Beguet collection which happens to be in Israel. This I found to be by far the most dry and least interesting part of the story, wishing it weren't a major part of the book.
- Documentary style exposes about horology or the watch industry. This part was most frustrating in its lack of detail and accuracy.
I think that as a novel for general audiences, the book falls short of the fluidity and historical suspense one could find in the DaVinci Code.
For watch and clock aficionados, this is a rare treat and glimpse into history. I admit I wasn't aware that Paris and France were the center of watchmaking in the late 1700s. Or that watches were so important back then. So it was a fascinating read and I learned a lot.
However, as I was filling the blanks in my own knowledge of horology, I realized one needed some prior knowledge to appreciate the book (which I had) and I also found inaccuracies which were annoying.
Some problematic examples:
"Rolex ... is now joined by relative upstarts like Panerai, Omega, and Breitling" -- hmm, Omega and Breitling are older than Rolex, and especially Omega has been bigger than Rolex in many respects throughout most of its history until the quartz crisis.
"Seiko with its Seiko Grand watches and Citizen ... with their higher end wrist computers with features including barometers, altimeters" -- the brand name is Grand Seiko, and Citizen is not known for their altimeter watches.
"Omega, Breitling, and Movado all use ETA movements in even their most expensive watches" -- not entirely true for Omega in the past 10+ years with coaxial. In general the history and role of the Swatch Group and Swatch quartz watches are brushed over with a very, very broad brush.
"When Rolex began using silicon ... collectors sold or shelved their old models and picked up new ones - the equivalent of a Lexus owner selling or or garaging his hat because the company added a different trunk release button" - where do we even begin on this one? First of all, many people prize their old Rolexes and view silicon with suspicion, and secondly silicon is a major upgrade to the "engine" making the mechanical watch more accurate and less susceptible to magnetic fields, so it's worth an upgrade.
Lastly, George Daniels is not given much credit as a watchmaker and is instead referred to mostly as a Breguet historian.
Recommended only for watch lovers who can read with a critical eye. Overall, I expect you will enjoy it.
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Marie Antoinette Watch Adultery Larceny Perpetual Motion eBook John Biggs Reviews
An excellent book. I found it extremely well written and researched. The author has woven the history o f the watch around the stories of the people who brought it to life, along with the very interesting evolution of clock and watch making. Who knew the history of a watch could be this fascinating? I have read tons of E books, and this is one of the absolute best. I highly recommend it!
I very much enjoyed the book. Like many watch collectors I am familiar with much o fthis story but the book adds a lot most watch types might find of interest but is not included in the other works on this particular watch.
It is not four stars because while the author leary has done research and spoken to experts, he does not seem to have talked to many avid collectors. In his writing on more mundane watches and their collectors he has made what I consider some very minor but significant errors.
I doubt this reflects on his treatment of the title topic but he should have stayed with it and not gone off into other areas.
In the watch itself, it technology and history it's a wonderful book. A lot os speculation but very well informed and thought out.
A fascinating story of watches, royalty, and grand theft. For a watch aficionado, it was lots of fun getting into the weeds of Abraham-Louis Breguet's workshop and the development of watches. But the story bounced around its three themes unevenly, creating more confusion than suspense.
Although Biggs claims at the end to be a watch fancier, his mistakes are unforgivable. He says that "solar mean time" (actually called "mean solar time") is the time indicated by the sun. In fact, it's the time indicated by clocks and watches, which are adjusted to average out the annual deviation of the solar day from 24 clock hours. He makes similar errors in describing watch movements, not understanding that the escapement regulates the beat, for example.
The editing was non-existent mistaking 1793 for 1783 (a huge difference in the Paris of the Revolution); Baron RM de Klinckowstrom was described in 1878 as the great-uncle of Axel Fersen, who died in 1820, instead of the great-nephew of Fersen; he writes of "braising" metal--that's what you do to meat; you "braze" metal.
Bottom line the errors and typos are sufficiently annoying to significantly diminish the pleasure of reading this book.
This book tells a number of stories, which are all linked by a single and singular time piece, the Marie Antoinette or the No 160. Some of teh stories are tragic but others show the heights to which artistry can elevate the human spirit. My only complain about this book is the lack of pictures of the watch. The writing and research are a solid five starts but it cries out for visual details of the "complications" of the watchmaker's art that he describes, as well as illustrations of the watches themselves.
This is a masterful writing effort. I can only imagine the research that went into it. The writing is superb. Biggs intertwines the history of watchmaking with historical events of the 1700's up to more recent times.. The story is spiced with a touching romance revealed through the life of Marie Antoinette who was married off young to the French King and eventually discovered the love of her life. Intrigue is introduced through scheming thieves. Biggs gets into their heads in a way that is fascinating. Whatever inspired Biggs to write a book of such detail about watches and their creators is puzzling, but he tamed the task. A creative, resolute composer and a master of the craft of writing, he delivers an exceptional historical account on a rare topic.
I devoured this book on a long international flight. Overall, I liked it, with some major reservations. I am a watch aficionado, and there were too many little omissions or inaccuracies in this book.
The book combines several narratives
- About A.L. Breguet, perhaps the most iconic individual watch maker of all time, and his life and career. I enjoyed this a lot. I did not know that Breguet created the first wristwatch in 1810, for example. I wish there was more detail about his work on escapements and springs.
- About Marie Antoinette, her lover, and Revolutionary France. Fascinating mention she and the king bought and owned hundreds of timepieces in their lifetimes!
- About the theft and eventual recovery of the largest Beguet collection which happens to be in Israel. This I found to be by far the most dry and least interesting part of the story, wishing it weren't a major part of the book.
- Documentary style exposes about horology or the watch industry. This part was most frustrating in its lack of detail and accuracy.
I think that as a novel for general audiences, the book falls short of the fluidity and historical suspense one could find in the DaVinci Code.
For watch and clock aficionados, this is a rare treat and glimpse into history. I admit I wasn't aware that Paris and France were the center of watchmaking in the late 1700s. Or that watches were so important back then. So it was a fascinating read and I learned a lot.
However, as I was filling the blanks in my own knowledge of horology, I realized one needed some prior knowledge to appreciate the book (which I had) and I also found inaccuracies which were annoying.
Some problematic examples
"Rolex ... is now joined by relative upstarts like Panerai, Omega, and Breitling" -- hmm, Omega and Breitling are older than Rolex, and especially Omega has been bigger than Rolex in many respects throughout most of its history until the quartz crisis.
"Seiko with its Seiko Grand watches and Citizen ... with their higher end wrist computers with features including barometers, altimeters" -- the brand name is Grand Seiko, and Citizen is not known for their altimeter watches.
"Omega, Breitling, and Movado all use ETA movements in even their most expensive watches" -- not entirely true for Omega in the past 10+ years with coaxial. In general the history and role of the Swatch Group and Swatch quartz watches are brushed over with a very, very broad brush.
"When Rolex began using silicon ... collectors sold or shelved their old models and picked up new ones - the equivalent of a Lexus owner selling or or garaging his hat because the company added a different trunk release button" - where do we even begin on this one? First of all, many people prize their old Rolexes and view silicon with suspicion, and secondly silicon is a major upgrade to the "engine" making the mechanical watch more accurate and less susceptible to magnetic fields, so it's worth an upgrade.
Lastly, George Daniels is not given much credit as a watchmaker and is instead referred to mostly as a Breguet historian.
Recommended only for watch lovers who can read with a critical eye. Overall, I expect you will enjoy it.
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