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CONTENTS 2-3 | The Arts 4-7 | The Haute Horlogerie 8-13 | Inventor of the chronograph 14-21 | Extraordinary customers 22-23 | Traité d’horlogerie 24-33 | Les Ateliers Louis Moinet 34-39 | Astralis 40-47 | Jurassic Tourbillon 48-53 | Treasures of the World 54-59 | Derrick Tourbillon 60-67 | Geograph Rainforest 68-75 | Geograph 76-81 | Tempograph 82-89 | Mecanograph 90-95 | Stardance 96-101 | Nelson Piquet 102-107 | Scott Dixon Dear reader, It is our privilege to present to you the magical world of Louis Moinet. We 108-113 | Jules Verne Instrument I & II wish you much pleasure in discovering this alliance of mechanical innovations 114-119 | Jules Verne Instrument III and precious, fascinating materials. Jean-Marie Schaller, CEO Les Ateliers Louis Moinet THE ARTS - 2 - 1768 | Birth of Louis 1788 | Master of Art 1795 | Professor of fine Moinet arts Louis Moinet was born in Bourges in 1768 into By the time he was of 20, Louis Moinet Upon returning to Paris, Louis Moinet was a well-to-do family of farmers. During his dreamed constantly of Italy, the classic land appointed Professor of the Académie des studies, he quickly distinguished himself for his of fine arts. He left France for the city of Beaux-Arts, in the Louvre. He became a mastery of classical subjects, and he regularly Rome, where he lived for five years, studying member of several scholarly and artistic took first place in academic competitions. architecture, sculpture and painting. He societies, and cooperated with eminent artists While still a child, he developed a passion for became acquainted with members of the such as the astronomer Lalande, the bronzier watchmaking and spent all his free time with Académie de France, which encompassed Thomire, and Robert-Houdin, the skilled a master-watchmaker. An Italian painter also some of the finest artists of the times. automaton-maker who is considered as the gave him private drawing lessons. “renovator of magical art”. He then moved from Rome to Florence, where he learned the art of fine stone engraving in a workshop placed at his disposal by Count Manfredini, Minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He also did several paintings there. - 3 - THE HAUTE HORLOGERIE - 4 - 1800 | A reference in President of the «Société 1818 - 1823 | Work with «Haute Horlogerie» Chronométrique» Breguet In parallel, he pursued his theoretical and Louis Moinet was appointed President of the Louis Moinet worked closely with the great practical study of horology, the art for which “Société Chronométrique de Paris” Abraham-Louis Breguet, over a period of many he already nurtured a passion. He renewed (Chronometry Society of Paris) whose years, acting in the capacity of close friend, contact with his former teacher, and the student membership included some of the greatest confidant and intimate advisor. The two men quickly became the master. talents of the era, and whose avowed purpose shared the same passion for the art of horology. was “the development and encouragement of Watchmaking occupied his entire time from watchmaking, one of the finest sciences of the 1800 onwards. He spent long periods in human mind”. Switzerland, from the Jura mountains to the Joux valley. He met many famous watchmakers Within this setting, he cultivated ties with his there, including Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, and fellow members including Abraham-Louis acquired his horological tools and instruments. Breguet, Louis Berthoud, Antide Janvier, Louis- Frédéric Perrelet, Joseph Winnerl, as well as Moinet himself was described by his peers as a Vulliamy, who served as the King’s Watchmaker “gifted artist”, an “eminent scholar” and “a in London. specialist in transcendent horology” ! - 5 - The Haute Horlogerie The work of Louis Moinet includes alarm watches, regulators and astronomical watches. As the inventor of unprecedented concepts, he devised some truly astonishing mechanisms. For example, several of his pocket-watch calibres boasted unusual arrangements of the components (such as with the whole set of gears built around the same pinion). Moreover, he invented a mainspring that improved the rating of the watch - a spring he poetically described as being a “half-ripe cherry red” colour when fired in the kiln. He also developed a new balance-cock that facilitated winding. Back view of King of Naple’s clock - 6 - « Rotating circles », cylinder technology used to spectacular effect After tireless efforts, he created a construction serving to move the stud of the balance-spring stud so as to poise the escapement correctly without needing to dismantle anything. Finally, he slotted, rounded and hand-finished the gear trains of his marine chronometers in order to ensure their precision. As a maker of precision instruments, Louis Moinet was involved in maritime, astronomical and civilian horology. He was an ingenious craftsman who perfected various techniques in these fields and developed several important new improvements. The great originality of the “Napoleon Clock” lies in an outsanding mechanism displaying the moon phases inside the day hand, by means of a tiny ivory ball. - 7 - INVENTOR OF THE CHRONOGRAPH - 8 - Inventor of the chronograph The most precise and revolutionary instrument of its time. The chronograph’s balance beats at 216,000 vibrations an hour or at the then unimaginable frequency of 30Hz. Louis Moinet is thus the father of high-frequency time measurement, although it was not until exactly a century later that a watch was made to beat his record. Until recently, it had been thought that the return-to-zero function dated from Adolphe Nicole’s patent of 1862. However, Louis Moinet had in fact invented the return-to-zero function half a century earlier for his ‘compte- tierce’, completed in 1816. - 9 - Inventor of the Chronograph 1816 - 10 - Louis Moinet, inventor of the High-frequency pioneer chronograph The recent discovery of a hitherto unknown timepiece is In the 19th century, watchmakers sought to increase the rewriting the history of watch development. It turned out precision with which they could measure time by to be the first ever chronograph, although its maker, Louis increasing the frequency of their watches. By 1820 the Moinet, called it a “compteur de tierces.” According generally accepted limit was time measurement to the to hallmarks on the dust cover, the chronograph was tenth of a second. started in 1815 and completed the following year. Moinet’s compteur de tierces (“thirds timer”) was thus This remarkable instrument of an entirely original design by far the most precise instrument of its period, is evidently the work of a genius well ahead of his time. measuring time six times more closely than the norm. It measures events to the sixtieth of a second (known in Moinet’s division of time into sixtieths of a second is those days as a “third” or tierce in French), indicated by another historical achievement that places him among a central hand. The elapsed seconds and minutes are the great contributors to modern watchmaking. recorded on separate subdials, and the hours on a 24- hour dial. The chronograph’s balance beats at 216,000 vibrations an hour or at the then unimaginable frequency of The stop, start and reset functions for the central hand 30Hz. To put that into perspective, the usual balance are controlled by two buttons which qualifies it as a frequency in a modern wristwatch is 28,800 v/h or chronograph in the modern sense, although the term 4Hz. Louis Moinet is thus the father of high-frequency was coined much later. The return-to-zero function was time measurement, although it was not until exactly a revolutionary for the time. Until today, this invention century later that a watch was made to beat his record. had been thought to date from Adolphe Nicole’s patent of 1862. - 11 - Inventor of the Chronograph 1816 Setting the sights on the stars sixtieths. He made the compteur initially to set the precise distance between the crosshairs in his telescope, as he describes in his 1848 Traité d’Horlogerie: “This invention came to me during my observations in the following circumstances. I had acquired a small mobile quadrant by the famous Borda (maker of the entire circle). This instrument, of excellent English manufacture, was balanced on rubies, and by an ingenious system of counterweights was supposed by its maker to be preserved by its own inertia from the motion of the ship, and to provide at sea observations almost as exact as those obtained on land. But the project was not successful. Having acquired the instrument for another purpose, I added, for terrestrial observations, an azimuth circle graduated in minutes with a vernier by the late Moinet made the timer for an astronomical transit Fortin, two intersecting levels, a polished mobile axis instrument, originally mounted for use at sea, that he and a three-footed stand with levelling screws and a had adapted to track the movement of heavenly bodies scale etc. However the scope’s narrow field of vision from the land. According to a letter he wrote in 1823, put the reticule lines very close together, and it was to “I came to Paris in 1815 with the sole purpose of remedy this inconvenience of failing to see a line, that devising and making a compteur de tierces. The difficult I thought up the compteur de tierces, which worked and seldom attempted realisation of this instrument of very well by giving me a precise distance between the a new construction, has achieved my purpose most reticule lines.” satisfactorily.” Moinet’s compteur had to function for at least 24 hours Why did Moinet need such high frequency? He was at an energy-hungry frequency to time successive timing the passage of stars, planets and even planetary transits of a star.