French silver repeating verge coach clock with alarm Circa 1775

Coach clock with alarm and date by Julien Le Roy
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A large French brass and silver open faced quarter repeating verge coach clock with alarm and date, circa 1775. Full plate movement, chain and fusee, an additional barrel for alarm, three hammers, a verge escapement and three-arm brass balance, repeating the hours and quarter hours. White enamel dial with Roman hours, an outer minute track, Arabic five-minute numerals, a central alarm disc, date scale and Louis XIV hands. The brass and silver transport case is covered with shagreen and pierced with sound holes, the inner case is made of silver, pierced and florally engraved, decorated with a band of cartouches and ornamental sound holes around the edge on the back, with a rear bell. Movement signed. Comes with the original leather transport case and winding key.
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Diameter: 121 mm
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Weight: 1200 g
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Signed: Juln Le Roy Paris
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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 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.