THURET Isaac II. 1630-1706 Born in Senlis about 1630, died in Paris on 11 April 1706. Married Margaret Hélot in 1663. Father of Jacques Thuret. He 'vas perhaps apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Charles Sarrabat. Received as master in the Faubourg-Saint-Germain before 1662, then in Paris before 1675. -Marchand Orlogeur Ordinaire du Roi before 1663, Horloger Ordinaire du Roi et de l'Académie des Sciences before 1672. Established in the Rue Neuve Saint Louis 1663, Place Dauphine at the sign of La Renommée 1675. Lodged in the Galeries du Louvre on 31 January 1686. Thuret was considered as the greatest clockmaker of his time. Germain Brice praised "the clockmaker of the Académie des Sciences with a profound knowledge of mathematics, who made a great contribution to the improvement of clocks "; the astronomer Richer maintained that Thuret "by his exactitude and the delicacy of his work surpassed until now all those who concern themselves with making watches and pendulum docks, whilst Leibnitz called him "the famous clockmaker'. Thuret contacted Huygens very early on, and became the most talented interpreter of his invention of the pendulum clock. Huygens, indeed, wrote in 1662 "How does Thuret manage to make these docks ? My father would give 10 or 12 pistoles more for them thin for his own". In March 1665, Thuret had already applied the remontoir to spring clocks, and he made a contract with Huygens concerning the privilege of constructing marine clocks. Then he built for Leyden University an astronomical clock based on the ideas expressed in the Horologium Oscillatorium. Unfortunately, the relations between the two men deteriorated because of the attempt made by Thuret to daim paternity of the hairspring for watches in 1675. The name of Isaac Thuret appears for the first time in the accounts of the Bâtiments du Roi only in 31 January 1669 for a "payment on account for the work that he has_done at the Académie des Sciences ( in 1667)" and from 1672 to 1694, he appears in the accounts of the Bâtiments under the heading " Officers who are on salary for serving generally in all the houses and buildings of His Majesty". He received 300 livres a year for "maintaining all the docks of the Académie des Sciences, those that are at the Observatory as well as those in the aforementioned Académie". He made, notably, in 1679 a "hairspring pendulum clock with eight panels, embellished with many ornements and gold scrolls filled with weapons and mottoes enamelled in various colours" for Louis XIV; in 1680 two machines showing the movement of the planets for the King's Library following Roemer's plans; in 1681 two other astronomical machines and 3 clocks of "new invention" for the Shah of Persia, in 1685 various watches and clocks sent by Louis XIV as gifts to the King of Siam, and in 1687 a parallactique machine. His activity Kvas intense; the King, the Royal family, his ministers, the great financiers and nobility of the highest rank were his clients. He sold the greatest part of his production directly himself, but also worked with the marchands. His cases were mostly supplied by André- Charles Boulle. Apprentice: Etienne Baillon 1705. Museums: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Dresden, Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon; New York, Metropolitan Museum; London, Royal Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum; Toulouse, Musée Paul Dupuy; Zurich, Beyer Museum.