Exceptional Discoveries: The Olmsted Complications Collection
Louis Berthoud, Horloger de la Marine
A rare and important silver pocket chronometer with regulator dial, No. 38, Circa 1809
Auction Closed
December 8, 10:03 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 40,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Movement: the full plate movement, with Louis Berthoud’s pivoted detent escapement, two-arm bi-metallic compensation balance with four wedge shaped temperature adjustment weights, blued steel helical hairspring, the backplate signed No. 38 Construite par Louis Berthoud, the rim with the same signature
Dial: white enamel signed Louis Berthoud, Hor.ger de la Marine with minutes calibrated on the outer ring and hours below 12’oclock, and constant seconds at 6 o’clock
Case: silver, “double fond” stamped with Joly’s maker’s mark and Paris guarantee marks for 1809-1819
Signed: dial and movement signed Louis Berthoud, case and cuvette stamped JLJ
Diameter: 65 mm
Accessories: mahogany deck box
Tony Mercer, Chronometer Makers Of The World, p. 107
Louis Berthoud, (1750-1813) was a distinguished chronometer maker and the nephew and student of Ferdinand Berthoud. After the death of Ferdinand Berthoud in 1807 Louis took over his uncle’s workshop and also succeeded his uncle as Horloger de la Marine.
Unlike his uncle who was a proponent of the large machine chronometers pioneered at this time in France, Louis Berthoud felt that the future was in a small pocket chronometer demonstrated in the present lot. In Fact, after working on what he termed “petite montres á Longitudes “series he presented the designs in a letter to the Minister of the Marine in 1792. Several years later realizing the difficulties in regulating the movement of such a small format, he followed the path of the bigger machines which could be mounted on gimbals. Another important difference between his chronometers and that of his uncle was that Louis Berthoud favored the pivoted detent escapement and not the spring detent used by Ferdinand Berthoud.
For a discussion on the work of Louis Berthoud, see Rupert T. Gould, The Marine Chronometer pp. 161-165. Gould notes that Berthoud received several prizes for his chronometers, including one in 1799 by Napolean Bonaparte for Berthoud’s chronometer showing Decimal time. The prize was 10,000 francs a year, with the provision that Berthoud must train five students per year to make chronometers. One of his most prominent pupils was Henri Motel who following Louis Berthoud’s death in 1813 succeeded him as the Horloger de la Marine, for a similar movement see op.cit-p.163-164.
The present watch is fresh to the market and was already in Mr. Olmsted collection as of 1971.