French 18 carat gold dumb quarter repeating à toc watch Circa 1777

Gold open faced verge watch 
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A French 18 carat gold and enamel open faced dumb quarter repeating à toc verge pocket watch with a Paris hallmark for 177-1778. Gilt full plate movement, pierced bridge cock forming a star, verge fusee escapement, steel coqueret, adjustable potence, repeating on blocks by depressing the pendant.
A slightly later, purpose made white enamel dial with Arabic chapters and blued hands. The case back is guilloché, enamelled with garlands around the band and with a rosette in the centre.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Signed: Robin à Paris
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Robert Robin  (1741-1799) was a talented and inventive clock and watchmaker who counted among his clientele the French Royal Family. He became Marchand Horloger Privilégié du Roi on 22 October 1763 and resigned on 13 September 1765 in favour of Jean-Pierre Courtois. In 1778 the Académie des Sciences approved two of his inventions, one being an astronomical clock representing a meridian drawn on a pyramid, which the Menus Plaisirs acquired that year for Louis XIV, for 30,000 livres. During the same period, he perfected his famous mantel clocks with astronomical indications and compensated pendulums, one of the first owners being the Marquis de Courtanvaux. Robin applied these principles to regulators, the Duc d’Aumont possessed an early model of this kind. He was equally interested in watches, using a special escapement that bears his name from 1786 onwards and in monumental clocks, supplying the Grand Commun at Versailles (1782), the Menus Plaisirs and the Petit Trianon (1785). Many members of Parisian high society were clients of Robin, including the maréchaux Ducs of Duras and Richelieu and the Marquis de Sérent, tutor to the dukes of Angoulême and Berry. In 1794, Robin was appointed Horloger de la République. After the French Revolution, he was given the task of making an inventory of the Royal clocks including the 23 that belonged to Marie Antoinette.
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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.