Legendary Figures of Watchmaking: Antide Janvier

When you think about all the incredible inventions of watchmaking, Antide Janvier has to come to mind. There are few that had such a successful career and contributed so much to what watchmaking is today. Not only did other watchmakers use the inventions that he made, the accolated Janvier achieved document his success in the history books.

Antide Janvier was born on July 1, 1751 in Jura, France. Some may have heard of the Jura region of Switzerland as the valley extends into the country and there are some important mountains in the area. From a young age, Antide proved his ability to learn and learnt mathematics, Latin, Greek, and astronomy at a very young age. Astronomy played an important role in his early years, and at 15, he built an astronomical sphere which won accolades at the Academy of Sciences of Besançon. From the success he had with his astronomical sphere, he began an apprenticeship in watchmaking.

During his time as a watchmaker, he specialized in astronomical clocks and clocks with tidal complications. He had the unique opportunity to present two of his clocks to Louis XVI, who ended up purchasing both of them. He made such an impression that he become the clockmaker to the Kings brother who would later become Louis XVIII, a future king of France.

Janvier is most well-known for his famous ‘double pendulum’ clocks which play an integral role in many modern watchmaking achievements we have seen. The idea for this type of clock came from an observation. Janvier found that when two clocks with pendulums were closed to one another, the pendulums had an effect on each others accuracy. They would disrupt the maintenance of time for each of the clocks. So Janvier decided to use this as an advantage. He created a clock that had two pendulums that swung together, thus creating two beating hearts that were equalized and created one, more accurate, time for the clock. This was an extremely important invention and became a huge part of watchmaking today, referenced by MB&F in the HM2 and in the famous Duality of Philippe Dufour.

Later, Janvier sold his watches, equipment and designs to Abraham-Louis Breguet who also experimented with two regulating systems in his watches. Janvier past away in 1835 on September 23, but his influence in watchmaking lives on.

Thank you Janvier for your contribution to watchmaking!

Enjoy!