Extremely rare, museum-worthy artifact of the art of watchmaking by one of its absolute masters: carriage clock with repetition by the court watchmaker Julien Le Roy

The term "repetition" describes the extremely rare, innovative function for the era, that the time or its hourly chime can be recalled at any time - especially at night when traveling - by means of a thread that leads out of the case.

Julien le Roy was a French master watchmaker and court watchmaker to the French royal family, and the most successful and well-known member of the legendary Baillon watchmaking dynasty. Each of his surviving artifacts represents a piece of watchmaking history.

Originals by Jean Baptiste Baillon II can be seen in the most important museums in the world: the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York or the Palace of Versailles

Solid, round brass case, case diameter mighty 10cm, approx. 700g heavy

Silver dial with engraved and blackened Roman numerals, circumferential gold-plated Kyma relief band, hour and minute, black, blued steel hands

Gold-plated full-plate movement with finely crafted verge bridge and repeating hourly chime by thread. Movement inscribed and signed Julien le Roy Paris.

Sound spiral with thread pull for repetition of the strike around the movement, winding key enclosed

The verge movement of the museum artifact runs wound up by the supplied key (accuracy not tested), hourly chime and its retrieval tested

A unique artifact in watch history, which probably only comes onto the market once in a decade, fully signed and functional, and also with a super rare repeater / hourly strike (quarter repeater)

EZ: 1 - 2 : excellent condition considering its age with hardly any signs of age or wear, runs smoothly, repeater works

Life

At the age of thirteen, Le Roy built his first clock . In the same year (1699), he moved to Paris to begin an apprenticeship. In 1713, he earned his master's title , and in the following years he became a member of the Paris Guild of Clockmakers. Le Roy then became a director of the Société des Arts de Genève , and in 1739 he was appointed Court Clockmaker (French: Horloger Ordinaire du Roi ) to Louis XV . Le Roy ran his workshop in the Rue de Harlay on the Île de la Cité in Paris until his death.

Examples of his clocks can be found in various museums around the world, including the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum .

His son, Pierre Le Roy, continued the workshop, invented the adjustable mass screws on the balance wheel , and also became a royal clockmaker. Another son, Julien-David Le Roy , was a neoclassical architect and archaeologist, and the author of Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce (1758), Histoire de la disposition et des formes que les chrétiens ont données à leurs temples (1764), and La Marine des anciens peuples expliquées, etc. (1777). The two remaining sons were Jean-Baptiste (from 1751, state surveyor of the Paris Academy ) and Charles Le Roy (a physician), both of whom wrote articles for the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert .