Mgr. Belmas

Mgr. Belmas, Bishop of Cambrai, 1835. Notes Breguet important documents concerning watches made for Mgr. Belmas Monseigneur Louis Behnas, Bishop of Cambrai, was the most extraordinary French client in the last decade of Breguel 's life. He was a meticulous and passionate collector, with a particular interest in complicated watches. Belmas bought eight watches from Breguet between 1814 and 1822, spending close to 20,000 Francs, which at the time was a highly impressive sum. During those years he kept up a regular correspondence with Breguet, often praising him and at times st r ongly demonstrating his impatience for the delay in deliveries or repairs of his watches. On one occasion, tired of waiting for the return of his decimal watch, he told Breguet that his watches were so complicated that if they went wrong, "nobody, not even he, can mend them! " . The respect and friendship between the two then was, however, unquestionable. As an extraordinary man, lianas wrote extr aordinary letters, filled with poetic expressions and unusual metaphors regarding his watches, which he liked to personify. For example, when Breguet made Belmas a watch with a crystal back, so that instead of opening it constantly, at the risk of breaking it, he could simply admire the interior at will, the bishop was so pleased that in a leper of 1821 he desc r ibed it as "a cr owd of people shut up together in a tiny house, living in peace and working efficiently together to create good order".