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18th-century French movements at best achieved a precision and delicacy that make the typical English
watch of the day look almost rustic by comparison. This movement abounds in meticulous touches such
as the two tiny screws, visible above the contrate wheel (with upright teeth) in the picture below, which
serve to adjust the outer bearing of the verge-staff. Virtually every component of the train has a
tiny cock or bridge of its own covering the pivot at one end – a forerunner of the ‘Lépine’ or ‘barred’
layout which superseded the full-plate throughout the French-speaking world fifty years later. Diameter
39mm.
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The repeater components, made of polished steel, are sandwiched between the dial (now lost) and the
top plate. The push-piece (the large component below the loop of string), when pushed inwards, draws
on the short end of the chain and so winds up a miniature mainspring between the plates; it also, by
an ingenious system of trips and levers, moves the remaining parts into action stations so that they
chime the last completed hour on one wire gong and the number of elapsed quarter-hours on another.
The gongs would have curved round the perimeter of the movement, the front plate and dial being extended
outwards so as to leave room for them between movement and case.
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