Watchmaking

Often present at auction, watchmaking gives pride of place to science but also to artistic technique. A collector's item, an object of curiosity, an object of art and a witness to its time, watchmaking comes in clocks, watches, clocks, cartels, regulators, etc.
In ancient times, it was sundials, clepsydra, hourglasses or oil or candle clocks that set the time. The first mechanical clocks appeared in the 13th century.
In France, the traces of a first "watchmaker", Jean l'Aulogier, date from 1292. It was in the 14th century that the mention of the watchmaking profession appeared with the term "Horologiarius". They were originally blacksmiths, locksmiths and finally watchmakers, whose corporation was founded in Paris in 1544.
In the 14th century, watchmaking experienced significant development in Western Europe. The day is organized around the time given by the Church and its bell towers. It was in 1336 in Milan that the first building clocks striking the hours made their appearance. Mechanical watchmaking was the cutting edge of technology because it could tell the time without depending on any consumption of material (wax, sand, etc.).
Mechanical watchmaking works around three main elements:
- the movement: it represents the motor which brings in a certain force thanks to a system of weights and springs at the start
- the gear: it is he who transfers the energy of the movement to the dial and the timbre, it somehow translates the force of the movement into readable hours.
- the exhaust: it can be with rod, anchor or cylinder, it allows to regulate the movement. The latter has seen a lot of innovation through the different forms of regulator such as the foliot, the spring, the pendulum or even the spiral.

Quickly, research in watchmaking went towards a miniaturization of the mechanism in order to arrive at the table clock. It is the invention of the mainspring in 1425 which makes this possible, it makes it possible to operate the mechanism even when traveling. From that moment, the clock combines with interior ornamentation and luxury and offers a panoply of forms: drum clock, table clock forming a book, ...
It was truly with the discovery of the pendulum that modern watchmaking was born. In 1648, Christiaan Huygens and Salomon Coster apply the phenomenon of isochronism discovered by Galileo, it is the first pendulum clock operating by the oscillation of the pendulum.

The pendulum clock will be very successful over the century. In the XVIIth century, fashion was in the cartel of scales and gilded bronze and regulators. The 18th century is rich in mantel clocks which can be subject, skeleton or portico. The XIXth century was marked by the rise of pendulums with bronze or regulating subjects, taking up the compositions of famous paintings or scenes from literature.

The search for miniaturization of watchmaking also leads to watch. This developed especially in the 17th century with the pocket watch, mainly developed in England with John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw, Switzerland and Germany.

In the 18th century, the French took pride of place in the watch trade through the work of Ferdinand Berthoud, Abraham-Louis Breguet, Julien Le Roy, Lépine. Even Voltaire ran a small factory in the commune of Ferney.

The industrialization of watchmaking in the 19th century gave rise to increased competition between countries and manufacturers. In 1810, The Queen of Naples Caroline Murat ordered Breguet's first wristwatch, which would remain an essential fashion accessory for a long time, then popularized by the military from 1880. Luxury wristwatches developed, notably Girard-Perregaux and Louis Cartier who in 1904 produced the Santos watch for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont.

In 1970, the electronic watch was invented popularizing the inexpensive watch. In 1983, Swatch used a new process to offer a wide variety of models.
Even today, inventions do not stop and auctions allow discovering sometimes unexpected complications and various models.

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