French metal verge pocket watch with enamel portrait Circa 1790

Metal and enamel watch by Robert Robin
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A French metal verge pocket watch with a polychrome enamel painted portrait, circa 1790.
This elegant timepiece boasts a fine full plate movement and a verge escapement, ensuring precise and reliable timekeeping. The white enamel dial adds a touch of sophistication to the design. The polished round case features a stunning polychrome enamel painted portrait on the reverse side, making it a true work of art. The watchmaker, Robert Robin, was a renowned French craftsman who lived from 1749 to 1799. His signature can be found on the movement, which proudly bears the inscription Robin à Paris.
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Diameter: 54 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: 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 tasked with making an inventory of the Royal clocks, including the 23 that belonged to Marie Antoinette.