Julien Le Roy à Paris, 43 mm, 72 g, circa 1750

A very fine, rare gold enamel verge pocket watch
Case: 18k rose gold, engraved gold bezel with a green patterned enamel rim, back with polychrome enamel cartouche: a courtly couple in period costumes and a moor who is eavesdropping on them; frame decorated with volutes, green patterned background. Back inner lid with polychrome bouquet of flowers; large outer hinge. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, Louis XVI hands. Movm.: full plate movement, firegilt, signed, chain/fusee, square baluster pillars, three-arm steel balance, fine florally engraved and pierced balance bridge.

Julien Le Roy
He was one of the most outstanding clock- and watchmakers of his time and certainly played a decisive part in establishing the leading role French clockmaking had in the 18th century. He became a master in 1713, presented an equation clock to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1717, and was appointed clockmaker to the king in 1739 (with his own rooms at the Louvre). Le Roy invented the adjustable bracket for the verge escapement wheel ("potence"), the repetition strike on springs instead of bells for pocket watches, and the "all-or-nothing" piece for repeating watches. His inventions and improvements were of such extreme importance that most watchmakers adopted them promptly for their own pieces. Later Le Roy was director of the Société des Arts; he and his son supplied the entries on watches and clocks in the encyclopaedia compiled by Diderot and d'Alembert.