An almost identical watch is illustrated in "Jean-Antoine Lepine, horloger (1720-1814)" by Adolphe Chapiro, Paris, 1988, p. 40. Jean Antoine Lépine (1720-1814). Son of Jean, Jean-Antoine Lépine was born on 18 November 1720 at Challex, a small village a few kilometers north of Geneva. After having worked for some time at the establishment of Decrose, in the Grand Saconnex in the suburbs of Geneva, he arrived in Paris in 1744. A workman for André Charles Caron, "Horloger du Roi" and father of Beaumarchais, he married his employer?s daughter in 1756 and was received Master in 1765. He was appointed "Horloger du Roi" (King?s Clockmaker) about 1765. In 1766 he succeeded Caron, and appears on the list of Paris clockmakers of that year as: Jean-Antoine Lépine, Hger du Roy, rue Saint Denis, Place Saint Eustache. In 1772, Lépine established himself in the Place Dauphine, in 1778-1779, Quai de l?Horloge du Palais, then in the rue des Fossés Saint Germain l?Auxerrois near the Louvre in 1781, and finally at 12 Place des Victoires in 1789. In 1782, his daughter Pauline married one of his workmen, Claude-Pierre Raguet, with whom he formed a partnership in 1 92. In 1763 he invented a new repeating mechanism for watches, which was published in the "Mémoires de l?Académie des Sciences" in 1766. His new caliber, of a revolutionary conception, replacing the rear plate by bridges, was invented about 1770. The different moving parts could thenceforth be dismounted separately, which made maintenance and repair much easier. Also, the use of a dead-beat escapement, less sensitive to variations in the driving force than the recoil escapement hitherto in use, allowed him to suppress the fusee. This new lay-out was improved by Breguet who adopted it from 1790 for most of his watches. Lépine was also responsible for a number of other inventions, one of them being the virgule escapement, a simplification of the double virgule escapement, invented by his father-in-law and used by his brother-in-law Pierre Augustin Caron (who became famous under the name of Beaumarchais). The French version -competing with the cylinder escapement invented in England- the irgule escapement, had a certain amount of success on the Continent at the end of the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth, where it was used by numerous clockmakers. However, it had the inconvenience of not holding oil, and wearing out quickly if it was not perfectly executed. Lépine also developed a new form of case, à charnières perdues (with concealed hinges) and a fixed bezel. Since these watches were rewound and set from the rear, the movement was protected from dust by an inner case. This new arrangement had the advantage of preventing access from the dial face, thus avoiding damaging it or the hands. Other inventions by Lépine had only an ephemeral success, justifying neither the difficulty of their execution, nor the increase in price. This was true of wolf tooth wheels, intended to limit friction, and a method of re-winding without a key, operated by pumping the stem. Lépine remained faithful to his country of origin, and went often to the Gex countryside, more particularly to Ferney where Voltaire had set up a watch manufactory in 1770. Friendly relations were established between Lépine and the philosopher, but we do not know the exact rôle he played in the Ferney manufactory. It is certain that he gave commissions to the workshops there until 1792. An anonymous memoir of 1784 reports that Lépine stayed in Ferney for 18 months, and that he had watch movements made there to a value of 90,000 livres a year. After his retirement in about 1793, although he had lost his sight, Lépine continued to be active in the firm -then managed by his son-in-law-, until his death on 31 May 1814, t the age of 93.