Pair of Door Handles

Guilloche is a decorative engraving technique carried out on specialized machines which, manually guided, generate a precise, very elaborate and repetitive pattern on the base material. Unlike simple, hand-made engraving, which allows for freer and more naturalistic designs, those made from guilloché machines are typically mechanized and repetitive. This then allows the creation of an infinite number of patterns by changing the parameters, and this goes hand in hand with the technique of the operator, but also with its aesthetic sense and its sensitivity. The exact origin of the first machines is not known with certainty. They could come from Switzerland or have been manufactured by a French engineer, Mr. Guillot. The first known example of watch cases with such patterns dates back to the year 1624. Its actual introduction into the watchmaking industry dates back to 1786 when Abraham-Louis Bréguet began to decorate the dials and cases of his watches. The technique met with extraordinary popularity in the 19th century, thanks above all to the work of Peter Carl Fabergé.