French gold dumb quarter repeating verge watch Cicra 1750

Gold dumb quarter repeater by Julien Le Roy
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A very fine French 20 carat gold dumb quarter repeating verge pocket watch, circa 1750. Hinged gilt brass full plate movement with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, plain steel three armed balance, flat balance spring, pierced and foliate chased continental type balance cock with polished steel end piece set with a faceted red stone, silver regulation dial with a blued steel hand, repeating on the case activated by depressing the pendant. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer minute track with Arabic five minute numerals and original gold Louis XV hands. Engine turned case with a swirling basketwork pattern, repeat silence button in the bezel, the pendant and thumb piece set with rose cut diamonds. Movement signed.
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Diameter: 46 mm
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Signed: Mery à Paris
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Although signed Merry, this watch was almost certainly made by Julien Le Roy.
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Julien Le Roy is one of the clockmakers who contributed most to the progress and the reputation of French watch- and clockmaking. Born in Tours on August 6, 1686, and died in 1759 in Paris. He came to Paris in 1699. In 1713 he achieved his master’s degree and in the following years, he became a jury member of the Paris Guild of Watchmakers. Later, Le Roy became director of the Société des Arts de Genève and, in 1739, Court Watchmaker (French Horloger Ordinaire du Roi) under Louis XV, he had his private quarters in the Louvre. He improved almost all branches of clockmaking and many important inventions in the realm of time measurement are owed to him. In 1717, Julien Le Roy presented an equation clock to the Royal Academy of Sciences which showed the true time, the place of the sun and its decline. His most important discoveries concerned watch mechanisms. The adjustable ‘potence’ for the verge escape wheel considerably improved the escapement’s functioning and the steel end-piece (coqueret) which allowed oil to be retained in the balance pivots in order to diminish frictional force, was quickly adopted by other watchmakers. He was the inventor of dumb repeating watches too, in 1740, he created a new arrangement that allowed the area allotted to the repeating work to be enlarged. This invention, called ‘à bâte levée’, was also adopted by his fellow clockmakers. In 1755 he invented a small anchor escapement used as a regulator for the repeating train. He contributed to the Encyclopédie by writing several articles on clockmaking together with his son Jean-Baptiste, the Academician. Le Roy ran his workshop in the Rue de Harlay in Paris until his death. Examples of his timepieces can be found in various important museums around the world, such as the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Montre à toc. A ‘dumb’ repeater watch in which a hammer strikes the inside of the case to produce a muffled sound. Invented by Julian Le Roy in 1740.