Lot 102

Ferdinand Berthoud

An extremely important, early Parisian ship's chronometer movement of museum quality

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The horological world is extremely diverse. Timepieces were designed and created for all kinds of uses. Nevertheless: a pocket watch will remain a pocket watch whether it is fitted with an anchor or a pivoted detent escapement, and a wristwatch will always be a wristwatch, may it contain a tourbillon or even a minute repeater. There are always the exotic pieces such as Jarossay’s wall clocks with worm gears, but usually their makers were only known for these eccentric designs.
There are exceptions of course. In his book "Chronometer Makers of the World" Tony Mercer estimates the total number of ship’s chronometers to be around 100.000; among them are the pieces with spring detent escapements made by Arnold and Earnshaw, anchor chronometers and clocks with pivoted detent escapements (and there is of course also Saaty’ s worm gear). The very few weigh-driven ship‘s chronometers however are truly rare and surprisingly enough they were not even produced in the workshop of a strange eccentric, but made by no other than Ferdinand Berthoud, one of the most important and famous clockmaker's, who created truly marvellous timepieces and who’s books had a prominent influence on the generations of makers that followed.
Ferdinand Berthoud was born on March 19, 1727 in Plancemont near Neuchâtel in Switzerland and at the age of 14, started his apprenticeship with his brother who worked as a clockmaker in nearby Couvet. In 1745 he went to Paris where over the next few years he acquired an excellent reputation as a maker of precision clocks. The evolution of French marine chronometers, which were always competing with the reputed English instruments, would not have happened without Berthoud.
He became clockmaker to King Louis XV., who in 1763 sent him to London to study the legendary ship’s clocks made by John Harrison – another outstanding inventor, but unlike Berthoud not much inclined to share his findings; however his longstanding stressful disputes with the Board of Longitude must be taken into account here.) Nevertheless Berthoud’s first journey to England was not a real success because while Harrison allowed him to study his clocks H1, H2 und H3, he kept his H4 shut away, which was the design, which would eventually win him the price money from the board of longitude.
Only during a second journey to London in 1766, where he met with Thomas Mudge and others, was Berthoud able to collect further information on this movement, and let it influence his own work. In the meantime he was appointed Horloger de la Marine Royale because of his fine ship‘s chronometers such as his early marine clocks no. 3 and no. 6; it was however not until 1766 that Louis XV. and his naval minister (who’s beautiful title of Duc de Praslin, was in fact the family name to be the origin of the praline we know today) issued him with an order to build clocks that were up to the standard of the English clocks. (The French equivalent to the London board of Longitude established in 1714 was the Bureau des Longitudes in Paris and not founded until a good 80 years later.)
Ferdinand Berthoud died on June 20, 1807, but until then he continued to improve chronometer escapements, wrote his marvellous textbooks on watchmaking such as Traité des horloges marines, Essai sur l'horlogerie, De la mesure du temps, Traité des montres à longitudes and created a great number of fascinating small and large clocks, among them exactly 21 weight driven marine chronometers such as the HM No. 15 dating from 1775 presented here – Inventée et exécutée par Ferdinand Berthoud.
HM No. 15
This timepiece is impressive right at first glance, due to its height of 52 cm and an 18 cm diameter. Bearing in mind that the use at sea also required a gimballed brass case to keep the movement safe and protected, the significance of this navigational instrument in the centre of a ship becomes very obvious. As the case is not present here, the construction appears somewhat sober, but allows an exciting view of the movement with its gently oscillating powerful balance.
Let's take a closer look at the silver dial with the marvellous signature, the quadrant segment for the Roman hours and the two subdials for minutes and seconds with delicate blued steel hands. Catching the eye right away is the unusual division in two seconds steps: this is a sign of the escapement used here with a slow balance swing moving on only every two seconds. Incidentally, hours and seconds are set independently. There are also the device to arrest the balance, a small cover panel and a winding square, which looks rather delicate, when considering the heavy movements carried out during winding. Similar to a freight elevator the large brass plate bearing the two brass weights (which are, quite unusually, heavily ornamented) moves upward. Two pulleys lead the rope to the large horizontal winding drum with grooves, providing a 24 hour power reserve.
The internet has a cute little film showing Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, President off the recently revived brand Ferdinand Berthoud acccepting the restored HM No. 14 (i.e., the direct predecessor of our clock) for the Chopard museum L.U.CEUM in Fleurier. We use the word "cute", because in the film one of the assistants asks if the timepiece has a chain/fusee, which obviously makes no sense in the weight driven construction and which the assistant is surely aware of; so let's assume the question was posed for educational purposes. However this well-made film is particularly interesting because it allows us to coimpare the two successive numbers 14 and 15: there we see the gilt dial with the enamel numerals while our clock has scales engraved in the silver. No. 14 does not have the little cover panel and we realize again that actually none of the 21 chronometers are completely identical; here the difference is in the different materials of the dials, No. 24 in Paris dating from 1782 has three small dials and the aforementioned No. 6 displays all indications from the centre. While some clocks are fitted with coarse lead weights, others come with ornamented brass weights; sometimes the weight setting device may rely on wheels or on brass brackets – one of Berthoud’s drafts even shows a cograil. Berthoud’s work is characterized by constant change and continuous upgrading. Also described is the making of a case for the marine chronometer. Those who needed such a case usually had to create it themselves because Berthoud’s chronometers of this type are normally only available without case, which reminds us of Berthoud’s precision pendulum clocks for observatories, which generally came without their wooden cases. What counted was that technology and precision were delivered.
The movement of our No. 15 catches the eye with the extremely large 13 cm balance and the temperature compensation in form of a 16 rod brass and steel assembly, which sits vertically underneath the movement and extends over the total widths of the plate and drives the balance spring directly. The three-armed balance consists of a solid gilt brass ring with 3 weights and a large engraved scale for fine adjusting. A pivoted detent escapement releases the wheel every two seconds. The movement itself is constructed on solid brass plates over three levels, with the dial above and the large weight winding system below. Powerful pinned movement pillars give the high construction the required stability. Every single part of this movement is of superior quality and in excellent condition.
Most timepieces of this type made by Ferdinand Berthoud are today part of museum collections. The Musée international d’Horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds shows the No. 12 dating from 1774, das Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris owns six pieces, others are spread over the collections of other museums or private owners.
We feel really lucky to be able to present this piece as one of the highlights in our auction.