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This is horologically a milestone

 

If you know you horology, then you would know that Jean-Antoine Lépine is the father of the modern watch. You would know him better as the master who taught Breguet how to make a watch.

He is also credited for making one of the earliest mechanical adding machines and so is part of computer history as well. He has built scientific lab instrumentation. 


Below is his greatest achievement. The lepine movement. Also open faced watches are also in his honor called lepine watches. It is the development of bridges that changed how mechanical watches would be made for the next 200 years. The below watch was made in 1780s and it is complicated, it has a quarter repeater built onto it, the world's first anti-shock protection, and it has bimetalic thermal compensation. F.P. Journe ripped off the motto "Invenit et Fecit" from Jean-Antoine Lépine. He signed his watches that way more than 200 years ago. Even by today's standards, the watch is extremely thin considering the degree of mechanical complication that is in this watch. He is consider one of the major founding fathers of watch making. In a short period of time, the world of watch making went from miniature pocket size clocks to the modern ultra thin movement with Breguet overcoil spring (which Lepine invented), thermal compensation, flat barrel mainspring, bridges, and an open faced watch design in a single persons lifetime more than 100 years before the next major watch invention. This is the watch that changed history the Lepine IIA. If you do a search on where his watches are on exhibition, you will find that he is in most of the world's most famous museums and collections. He was also the Royal Watch Maker to the King of France, made watches for Bonapart, and many other King and Queens including watches for the President George Washington.   Note even in 1780s, watch counterfeits were abundant and unfortunately, that means that  Jean-Antoine Lépine was one of the most counterfeited watches of the time. It is extremely difficult to find genuine ones. 

Link:  Horological meandering: The Da Vinci Of Watchmakers Jean Antoine Lepine Most Import Watch Ever Produced




















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