Lot 109

Hubert Sarton

A rare, large Liège pocket watch with double-wheel duplex escapement, quarter repeater "à toc", centre seconds and date

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Dieudonné-Hubert Sarton (1748-1828) was an eminent Belgian watch maker. From early childhood he showed mechanical inclination and keen scientific interest. He was trained as a watch maker by his uncle and godfather, Dieudonné Sarton, in 1762. In 1768 Sarton moved to Paris to complete his apprenticeship and to perfect his skills as a watch maker. There he worked for Pierre II. Leroy, the oldest son of Julien Leroy, who was the royal watch maker of King Ludwig XVI. After becoming master watch maker, he returned to Liège in 1772 and settled there. Sarton became the royal watch maker of Duke Karl Alexander von Lothringen, Governor of the Netherlands and worked many years in the service of the prince-archbishop of Liège, Franz Karl von Velbrück, who was his patron and sponsor. In 1799 he assigned Satron with the founding of the Société Libre d'Emulation in Liège. Sarton wrote a series of memoranda and also occupied himself with the construction of coal mining machines, as well as windmills and hydraulic machines used for draining the dutch polder landscape.