Provenance: Bloch-Pimentel Collection. A very interesting watch from the decorative point of view. Bouvier, active circa 1740-1760 specialized in enamel cases made to resemble other materials, such as porcelain or hardstone, and bearing a repoussé gold decoration forming a stunning composition. A case by him (housing a Thomas Gardner movement) with enamel resembling porcelain and decorated with Pallas Athena, is in the Louvre Museum; another, with a Julien Le Roy movement, was in the Jubinal de Saint-Albin Collection. An identical case to this one, housing a Julien Le Roy movement, is in the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris (inv. 646). All his cases show the same style and the finish of the repoussé work. One case signed on the enamel by Bouvier has gold work signed "COCHIN F" (Cochin Fecit), and it is very likely that the repoussé work on other cases was also done by Cochin. Bou-vier came from a Geneva watchmaking family and began working as an enamelist in Paris around 1740. David Cochin was a repoussé artist working in Geneva around 1730, who emigrated to Paris probably in the late 1730s. He was received Master in Geneva in 1732. The scene, taken from Genesis 24:23, tells how Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to his homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. Upon his arrival there, Eliezer met Rebecca by the well. Taken by her manners and beauty, Eliezer knew that in this young woman he had found a wife for Isaac. As a sign of betrothal, Eliezer gave presents to Rebecca: "when the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels." An eminent French horologists, the most famous in the 18th century, he was the son of Pierre I Julien, master clockmaker in Tours. He contributed immensely to the progress of French and international watchmaking during the first half of the 18th century. Trained by his father, he was a compagnon in Paris, and was received Master in 1713. First a member, then director of the Société des Arts, he was also a "Juré" from 1735 to 1737. In 1717 he presented to the "Académie Royale des Sciences" an equation clock showing true time and the position of the sun. In 1739 Le Roy was appointed Clockmaker to the King, and was given lodgings in the Louvre Galeries, which he never in fact occupied, settling his son Pierre there in his place. He reintroduced and considerably improved the adjustable potence for the escape wheel, introduced the steel endpiece for balance pivots to retain oil, and dumb repeating watches. In 1740 he invented the "bâte levée", an arrangement improving the way in which the repeating work, or cadrature, is housed. All these inventions are implemented in this watch. In 1755 Le Roy invented the anchor governor for striking and repeating mechanisms. These improvements and inventions were so useful that they were almost immediately adopted by other watchmakers. It can be safety stated that he invented a new "generation" of watches. In 1715 he was introduced to the British clockmaker Henry Sully, with whom he was to work until Sully?s death in 1728. The two men participated jointly in the reconstruction of the Société des Arts. Together with one of his sons, an Academician, he contributed to the "Grande Encyclopédie", writing about clockmaking. His reputation was such that, along with Breguet, he was the most counterfeited of French watchmakers.