Tir federal The Tir federal is a traditional Swiss Shooting Institution that goes back several centuries. It would be impossible to understand its history without mentioning the initiation and training of young boys to such ancient shooting sports as archery, crossbow archery, or the use of the sling. Towards the middle of the 14th century, the Tir was already considered as an important element of national defence. The first regulations of the Tir were established as early as in the middle of the 15th century. Furthermore, thanks to the authorities, shooting associations and societies were formed and equipped with firing range facilities. Shooting soon became a national sport and various competitions were introduced, whether local, among the Swiss cantons, or on a Federal scale. Such events, involving tens of thousands of competitors, presented the winners with prizes, awards and honorary gifts. In 1864, the first federal regulation was set up for the Army with regards to a subsidy by the Confederation to be given to shooting societies. In 1907, the new military organisation instituted annual shooting practices for all tr oop officers as well as all soldiers armed with shotguns or rifles; it was declared that such shooting practices were pain t of the military service. The Tir therefore became an integral part of the Swiss Army. In 1885, the organisation committee of the Geneva Tir federal had authorised the supply of watches as free gifts to be offered at the 1887 Tir. Competitors had to be Swiss makers established in Geneva. The competition involving 16 participants set out special conditions for the making of the watch which concerned the movement, the size, the quality, the case and the decoration. Experts chose the prototype made by J. J. Badollet & Cie for the making of the official watch. The chased decoration was the work of the artists Lossier and Divorne. The present watch is probably the one mentioned by Jean I.. Martin in his book Montres historiques suisses, Vol. 5, page 46, from the Non-Magnetic Watch Company and won by Jakob Walt d 'Altstz tten SG. Both sides of the 1887 competition medal are represented on the cuvettes of the watch in question. The medal was made by Lossier and the engraving by Bovy and Richard. The 1887 Tir federal medal resulted from a contest in which all Swiss artists took part. Charles-Auguste Paillard (1840-1895) was horn in Ste Croix, Switzerland, from a French family who had fled its country at the ti me of the revocation of the Edit de Nantes. In 1857 he left for Brazil where he completed his watchmaking apprenticeship and became namely specialised in the repair of marine chronometers. Ile then became interested in the influences of temperature on watches. Ile noticed harmful effects to the expansion of the balance wheel and the balance spring which subjected to heat provoked slow timekeeping, while subjected to cold provoked fast timekeeping. He therefore undertook to improve the balance spring, by studying its material composition and in particular palladium. On his return to Switzerland, Paillard established himself as a timer in Geneva in 1862. In 1877, he perfected a palladium alloy for balance springs. In the regulation of precision chronometers, this alloy is less sensitive to middle temperature errors than the steel balance spring. Charles-Auguste Paillard was awarded the Medallic d ' Or Dc la Rive by the Geneva Societe des Arts, in 1881, for his invention of the palladium balance spring. Swiss and foreign chronometer makers all recognised the improvements made possible thanks to the palladium balance spring. However, around the 1890 ' s the palladium balance spring progressively fell into disuse due to its questionable results and the introduction of the Guillaume balance. Several books and articles on the subject were inspired by the work of Charles-Auguste Paillard between 1888 and 1900. Watches and chronometers based upon his research were very successful in most of the timing contests as attested by several rewards delivered by different observatories.