The movement of this watch was originally designed to be hinged in the case as was usual in most XVIIIth. century watches. The registration mark, punched in 1793 at the request of the silversmith community and the title on the dial: "Horloger du Roy" would confirm that it %vas cased by Robin in 1793, during the Constitutional Monarchy. The later mandatory dut), marks for the period from 1809 to 1819 indicate that the watch vvas in fact not sold until much later, after the death of Robert Robin (1799) and the restoration of the Monarchy, following the fall of Napoleon. Following the French Revolution, many of the laves and institutions associated with the monarchy were withdrawn or annulled, and in several cases, not immediately replaced. One such was the official hallmarking of objects made in precious metal, for the Assemblée Législative cancelled the lave on the lst of October 1791. Naturally, with no official controls, sub-standard silver and gold began to flood the market, with the result that the master goldsmiths, as members of the recognised guild introduced their own control mark -'Head of a Greek woman' with the letter 'P'- in 1793, as a self-policed guarantee for the quality of silver. As this single mark was applied to objects made in both 1st (958) and 2nd (843) standard metal, the Guild decided the following year (1794) to replace it with a similar head, but bearing the number '1' for lst quality and a 'Horse's head' mark for objects of 2nd standard. At the same time, the'Baby's head' was introduced as a guarantee for items made in gold. All these ' temporary' marks were superceded by the act of 19 Brumaire an VI (9 November 1797) which reintroduced the official controls and duties on precious metals with new marks, the lave coming into effect on 19th June 1798. With the re-introduction of official controls, it became necessary for any objects not already sold, to be re-submitted and stamped with the marks in force at the time of sale. Hence it is not unusual to find watch cases from the period bearing several apparently conflicting sets of marks.