A Swiss-born French watchmaker, mechanic and inventor. Unanimously recognized as one of the greatest watchmakers of all time.

Born in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), he moved to France at the age of 15. There he acquired a solid theoretical and practical training before founding his establishment in Paris in 1775. Then he began an intense career dominated by virtuosity and artistic sense, by scientific rigor and technical innovation, as well as commercial daring and a great feeling for human relations.

It seems that Agustín de Betancourt was a representative, agent or dealer for the watches made by Breguet’s firm for their distribution and sale in Spain. This collaboration was mutual, as Breguet participated in the development of the optical telegraph designed by the engineer in the Paris of around 1793, and it is possible that this joint venture was extended also to the development of scientific or technological instruments, as Betancourt at that time was commissioned in the French capital to contribute to the formation of a collection of instruments and machines that form the “Colección de Máquinas del Real Gabinete” (Collection of Machines of the Royal Cabinet) to be installed in Madrid.

Together they drafted Mémoire sur un nouveau Télégraphe et quelques idées sur la Langue Télégraphique, that they presented to the Directory of the Republic. In 1797, the Interior Minister requested from the Academy of Sciences a report comparing the telegraph of Chappe and the one of Betancourt and his friend Breguet, a dazzling committee of wise men was formed for the ruling. The test was limited to experiment their new telegraph as Chappe flatly refused to submit to the comparison. The report issued by the committee of wise men could not be more appreciative. The advantage of the new telegraph was undoubted, for though its construction was more complex, it was easier and faster to use.

Betancourt returned to Spain from one of his many trips to the French capital in 1798, when Breguet gave him an excellent pocket watch, especially manufactured and made expressly for him. The existing literature says that it was made around 1796-97. It had a manufacturing cost of 1378 francs, although there is no selling price in the mentioned documentation, a fact that indicates that perhaps Breguet made a gift to his great friend Agustín de Betancourt.