This is the first watch we have seen with an enamel scene signed by Soiron. Rinaldo and the Wood Nymphs The scene is taken from Torquato Tasso?s (1544-95) romantic epic "Gerusalemme Liberata" (1581), a chivalric romance very popular in its time. Rinaldo?s journey along the Po in the last cantos of the Furioso is sometimes described as a voyage parallel to the homecoming of Homer?s Odysseus. Here, the medieval Christian knight Rinaldo has entered the enchanted forest, where monstrous apparitions have prevented his men from gathering wood to build their war-machines. Suddenly, hundreds of tree nymphs appear, surrounding Rinaldo. Jean-François Soiron (1756-1812). A miniaturist and painter on enamel who specialized in portraits and landscapes, and who often decorated watch cases, Soiron was born in Geneva on 18 August 1756, and was apprenticed to Jacques Teulon in Geneva from 1768 to 1773. He entered into partnership with David Frainet and Etienne Frégent and later, from 1788 to 1794, became a partner of Jean Alexandre Grand. Soiron taught several apprentices, among them: François Gerbel, in 1775; Groud, in 1778; J.-L. Fournier, in 1779; P.-A. Marguerot and Antoine Gillet, in 1783; Jean-Louis Henry, in 1784; François Chappuis, in 1792; and finally L.A. Fabre, with whom he became associated in 1796. That association was to last only a year. In 1799 he is known to have been a member of the Société des Arts. He emigrated shortly afterward to Paris, where he established his own business in 1800. At the Paris Salon of 1800 he exhibited three portraits and a vase of flowers; he also exhibited in 1801. In 1804 several portraits by Soiron were exhibited in the same Salon, and in 1806 he presented a fine portrait of Napoleon on horseback and one of Vivant Denon. In 1808 Soiron exhibited portraits of Napoleon and Josephine as well as several enamel paintings and, for the last time in 1810, portraits and enamel scenes. In 1802, Soiron also worked for the Sèvres porcelain factory. During the last two years of his life, Soiron was short of money and in ill-health. He died in Paris in 1812. Alexandre Ami Monnier. Born in Neuchâtel, he was a well-known Master horologist of the second half of the 18th century. He became associated with Jean Marc David Rochat in 1784, then, toward the end of 1789, with Jean-Pierre Mussard.