The pivoted detent clocking device is simple, yet clever solution to make a table clock beating dead seconds.Robert Robin (1741-1799)Became Marchand-Horloger Privilégié du Roi on 22 October 1763 and resigned on 13 September 1765 in favor of Jean-Pierre Courtois. Was received master on 21 November 1767, with a Council decree of 10 November 1767 exempting him from apprenticeship. Horloger du duc de Chartres (1778). Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire du Roi in reversion to Charles-Athanase Pinon (1783) but never exercized. Obtained the reversion of Maurice-Quentin La Tour's lodgings in the Galeries du Louvre on 5 December 1785.Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Reine on 1 October 1786. Also held the titles of Horloger de Monsieur (1785), Horloger de la République (1794), and Horloger du Directoire (1796). His widow declared the bankruptcy of the succession. Established Grande Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré (1772), Rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois (1775), Rue Saint-Honoré at the Hotel de l'Aligre (1778), and at the Galeries du Louvre (1786). Robin was a remarkable engineer with a creative mind and possesseconsiderable ambition which led him to accumulate titles and offices. He belonged to the small circle of great clockmakers of the end of the eighteenth century who greatly improved instruments for measuring time.The most brilliant phase of his career began in 1778 when the Académie des Sciences approved two of his inventions. One of these was an astronomical clock, representing a meridian drawn on a pyramid, which the Menus Plaisirs acquired that same year for Louis XIV, at a cost of 30,000 livres and which Robin described in a publication entitled "Description Historique et Mécanique" [Historical and Mechanical Description]. During this same period, he perfected his famous mantle clocks with astronomicl indications and compensated pendulums, one of the first owners being the marquis de Courtanvaux. Robin applied the same principles to regulator clocks; the duc d'Aumont posseded an early model of this kind. Robin was equally interested in watches, using a special escapement from 1786 onwards, and also in monumental clocks, supplying those for the Grand Commun at Versailles (1782), the Menus Plaisirs warehouse and the Petit Trianon (1785). He published a description of the Petit Trianon clock,hich is now on display in the galerie des espèces disparues of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. During the Terror, Robin produced decimal watches and clocks.The design of the cases for his mantle clocks was remarkably modern and elegant. He used the work of numerous artists including R. and J.B. Osmond, P.P. Thomire, E. Roy, J.L. Beaucour, P. Delacroix, F. Rémond, C. Galle, B. Lieutaud, E. Levasseur, J.H. Riesener, F. Schwerdfeger and A. Weisweiler. Dials were provided Barbezat, Barbichon, Dubuisson, Cave, Merlet and particularly Coteau, and springs by the Richards and the Montginots. At the end of his career he used watch cases by Jean-Louis Gilletand Tavernier. Much appreciated by the various administrators of the King's Household, Robin supplied the Crown with a great many clocks. In 1788, the inventory of those owned by the King and the Garde-Meuble lists seven, while the 1793 inventory of the Queen's clocks lists 23 and that of Monsieur, Louis XVI's brother, shows he owned about ten models. His talents and the Royal Family's patronage enabled Robin to count among his clientele the most brillant representatives of the Parisian high socety of the time and included, for example, the maréchaux ducs de Duras and de Richelieu, Premiers Gentilshommes de la Chambre, and the marquis de Sérent, tutor to the ducs d'Angoulême et de Berry.As a man, Robin demonstrated noticeable avarice and to even an impartial observer his attitude towards his royal patrons during the Revolution seems to have been particularly ungracious. His workmen included Lory and Cleret, both of whom signed "Elève de Robin". His sons Robert-Nicolas and Jean-Joseph, brillant clockmakers in their own right, carried on their father's business during the first third of the 19th century. They were awarded a silver medal at the 1806 Products of Industry Exhibitionand a bronze medal in 1819. Under the Restoration, they held the titles of Horloger du Roi and Horloger de Madame la duchesse d'Angoulême, the daughter of Louis XVI."Les Ouvriers du Temps", by Jean-Dominique Augarde, Antiquorum Editions, 1996.