French repeating à toc watch with drum escapement Circa 1780

Gold open faced pocket watch by Jacques Paliard
–
A rare French gentleman’s quarter repeating pocket watch à toc with drum escapement, according to Jean Guerin, circa 1780. This watch has a gold case with à quatre couleurs design adorned with floral patterns. It has a case maker punch mark PIG, features allegories of war and science on the back, and a large lateral hinge. The enamel dial displays radial Arabic hours, red Arabic minutes, and a date indication with red Arabic numerals. The hands are intricately pierced filigree. The full plate movement is keywind and fire gilt, signed and equipped with two hammers and rounded pillars. It has a drum escapement, a three-arm steel balance, and a beautifully engraved and pierced balance bridge.
–
Diameter: 39 mm
–
Weight: 51 g
–
Signed: (Jacques) Paliard à Bescancon
–
The drum escapement is an unusual experimental escapement laid out similarly to a cylinder. The escape wheel resembles an Earnshaw-type chronometer but has longer teeth coming to a point with a curved back. The tips of the teeth pass close or through the centre line of the balance staff. The staff has a roller turned in, which is cut through at about ninety degrees to form two acting faces, the escape wheel being thick enough to engage both the upper and lower sections. The escape wheel teeth rest against the outer polished rim and give impulse to the balance as they drop onto the flat portion of the lower half. As the tooth exits, it gives an impulse to the balance in the other direction by acting on the upper portion.
–
Jacques Paliard was born on October 8, 1722, in Beauregard (Doubs) to Pierre François Paillard, a farm worker in this place, and his wife, Jeanne Claudine Chagrot. He was baptized on October 9, 1718, in Labergement-Sainte-Marie. Jacques Paliard married Charlotte Suzanne Mongenet {1709-1797) in Besançon on September 11, 1742 . Jaques was a watchmaker in this city; his brother Claude Antoine Paliard also became a watchmaker and worked in Besançon and Paris. Since there is no first letter of a first name for the watch shown, brother Claude Antoine probably made this watch.
No descendants of Jacques Paliard are known; he died on January 5, 1787, in Besançon at the age of 68. His wife Charlotte died on August 3, 1797, in Besançon at the age of 88.