Léon Hatot (1883-1953). Among the most creative Art Deco designers in Paris, Léon Hatot was born on 22 April 1883 at Chatillon-sur-Seine. He was trained at the Ecole d'Horlogerie in Besançon and completed his studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in the same town. He was only 22 when he started his own business in 1905. First specialised on watch case engraving, the workshop grew rapidly and soon, with 12 collaborators, Hatot widened the range of his products with complete watches and jewellery ofhigh quality. Taking over Maison Bredillard, he settled in Paris in 1911, keeping a large workshop in Besançon. For the next twenty-five years, Maison Hatot flourished as an important supplier of jewellery and watches for the principal jewellers of the world. In 1919, Léon Hatot formed a new company for the purpose of developing and manufacturing watches and electrically powered clocks, subsequently sold under the trademark of ATO. In 1925, the firm was awarded a Grand Prix at the Exposition desArts Décoratifs, for a whole series of new electrical timepieces. Developed in 1929, the "Rolls" self-winding wristwatch was certainly the most significant invention of all his mechanical inventions for which an International patent was granted in 1931, and the design was licensed to Blancpain for full production. The famous Maison Paul Garnier, specialised in timepieces for railway stations and public buildings was acquired in 1933 by Léon Hatot who moved the greater part of the workshop to Pars in 1934. After World War II, in the 1950's, Société Hatot still very active, developed and patented the world's first transistorised electric timepiece which was licensed to all the major manufactures of electronic watches, clocks and even chronometers with the famous Chronostats, still supplied by L. Leroy & Cie to the French Navy for his most prestigious ships such as the aircraft carrierClemenceau as late as 1970. Léon Hatot died in 1953, but the firm continues today, based in Paris, and spcialised in the development and production of electrical horology of all types. Maison Hatot flourished as an important supplier of jewellery and watches to the principal jewellers of the rue de la Paix and elsewhere. Among their more famous clients can be included: Asprey, Boucheron, Dunhill, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vever, Mauboussin, Mappin & Webb, Ostertag, Lacloche, Janesich, Goldsmith's and Silversmith's Co.These watches were part of the sale Fine Jewels and Watches from the Atelier of Léon Hatot, Geneva May 10, 1989, lots 37, 38, 81 and 148.