French verge watch made for the Turkish market Circa 1800-1820

Gold, enamel and pearl-set repeater by Julien Le Roy
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A fine and attractive French 18K gold, enamel and pearl-set open faced quarter repeating verge pocket watch made for the Turkish market, circa 1800-1820.
Round-shaped case, the back painted on enamel with a vase of flowers set with pearls, both bezels polychrome enamel decorated, the front bezel pearl-set. White enamel dial with Turkish numerals and blued hands. Gilded brass full plate movement, key-winding, fusee and chain, verge escapement, polished brass monometallic balance, blued steel flat hairspring, pierced and engraved gilded continental cock. Repeating the quarter hours on one bell active by depressing the pendant. Movement and dust cap signed.
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Diameter: 57.5 mm
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Signed: Jn Le Roy à 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 correct 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. The steel end-piece (coqueret) allowed oil to be retained in the balance pivots to diminish frictional force and 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 worldwide, such as the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum.