Marie Antoinette many, leading to doubt as to the parentage of the child and to a noticeable decline of the queen's reputation in public opinion. The majority of Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVII's biographers believe that the young prince was the biological son of Louis XVI, including Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, who believe that Fersen and Marie Antoinette were indeed romantically involved. Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries that the date of the child's conception in fact corresponded perfectly with a period when the king and the queen had spent much time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks
Marie Antoinette (watch) 1783 by Count Hans Axel von Fersen, an admirer and alleged lover of the French Queen, Marie Antoinette. It took almost twenty years to complete. Marie Antoinette never lived to see the watch, as it was completed 34 years after she had been executed. Work stopped for around seven years (1789–1795) during the period of Breguet's exile. The "Marie Antoinette" remained in the possession of the Breguet company until it was sold to Sir Spencer Brunton in 1887, eventually finding its way into the collection of Breguet expert Sir David Lionel Salomons in the 1920s. On his death in 1925,