"Breguet makes a watch which for twenty years never goes wrong, while the pitiful machine by which we live runs amiss and produces pain at least once a week."
Stendhal
Rome, Naples and Florence, 1817
Stendhal (1783-1842), best known for his novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme, made this flattering allusion to Breguet in his travel piece Rome, Naples et Florence, published in 1817, incidentally providing the best possible publicity for the firm.