French fine and rare silver revolutionary watch Circa 1794

Pocket watch with decimal and duodecimal time
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A fine and very rare silver revolutionary watch with decimal and duodecimal time, made by Jean Antoine Lépine in Paris, France, circa 1794. This full hunter cased watch was crafted from silver and has a white enamel revolution dial with decimal and duodecimal time and three hands. The gilt thin movement has a verge escapement.
Dial signed.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Weight: 93 g
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Signed: Lépine                               
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Revolutionary watches are extremely rare and sought after collector’s items. This watch commemorates a brief and turbulent time in French history when the new republic ordered the use of decimal time. After the revolution a new digital system was introduced. The day was divided into ten hours of 100 minutes each, with each minute divided into 100 seconds. For example, 12:30 in the afternoon was 5:20:83.3 in decimal time. The decimalisation of time was introduced on 24 November 1793. Since the new time division could not be enforced, it was suspended on 7 April 1795. So these watches were made in a period of less than 18 months, which explains why they are so rare.
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Jean-Antoine Lépine

 Jean-Antoine Lépine (also L’Pine, LePine, Lepine or L’Epine) was born as Jean-Antoine Depigny on November 18^th, 1720 in Challex, France. He was an influential watchmaker. Lépine contributed inventions which are still used in watchmaking today and was amongst the finest French watchmakers, who were contemporary world leaders in the field. Since his childhood the horologist showed an inclination towards mechanics, beginning his horological career and making fast progress, in particular, under the direction of Mr Decroze, manufacturer of Saconnex watches, in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland.

 Lépine moved to Paris in 1744 when he was 24 years of age, serving as an apprentice to André-Charles Caron (1698–1775), at that time clockmaker to Louis XV. In 1756 he married Caron’s daughter and associated with him, under the name ‘Caron et Lépine’, between 1756 and 1769. Watches with a signature Caron et Lépine or equivalent are not known, apparently, Lépine was independent to a certain extent. As early watches were not numbered, it is uncertain when Lépine began to sign watches with ‘Lépine à Pari’s on the movement and partially ‘L’Epine à Paris’ on the dial.

On March 12^th, 1762, he became maître horloger (master horologist) and probably since that year he was the teacher of Abraham-Louis Breguet, with whom he had a business relationship over many years. In the Breguet archive, many watches are recorded as delivered by Lépine. In 1765 or 1766 (precise date not known), he was appointed Horloger du Roi (Clockmaker to the King). In 1766 he succeeded Caron and appeared on the list of Paris clockmakers of that year as Jean-Antoine Lépine, Hger du Roy, rue Saint-Denis, Place Saint Eustache. Ten years later, in 1772, he established himself in the Place Dauphine, in 1778-1779, Quai de l’Horloge du Palais; then in the Rue des Fossés Saint Germain l’Auxerrois near the Louvre in 1781 and finally at 12 Place des Victoires in 1789. In 1782, his daughter Pauline married one of his workmen, Claude-Pierre Raguet (1753–1810), with whom he formed a partnership in 1792. 

He was also associated for a certain period with the philosopher Voltaire, at his watch manufactory set up in 1770 at Ferney. It is not known the exact role he played in the Ferney Manufacture royale, either technical director and/or associate. However, most ebauches for his watches were made there, at least between 1778 and 1782. An unsigned memoir of 1784 reports that Lépine stayed in Ferney for 18 months and that he had watch movements made there with a value of 90,000 livres a year. As a clock- and watchmaker to Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon Bonaparte, Lépine’s creations were well respected and in demand. He died at the age of 93 on May 31 1813 in Paris, France.