A 200-year-old breakthrough inspires a modern-day entrepreneur.
In early 1815, Louis Moinet, a trained watchmaker and well-rounded artist in Paris, set out to create an accurate timing device that would surpass any he had made. He wanted to time with greater precision the apparent movement of the stars in the night sky. Moinet’s unrelenting quest for accuracy led to his successful invention the next year of the world’s first chronograph watch. He called his new creation, capable of measuring time to one-sixtieth of a second, Compteur de Tierces (meaning a counter of thirds). His timepiece’s movement produced 216,000 vibrations an hour, which greatly aided its accuracy. Not only did Moinet invent the chronograph; he also pioneered the high-frequency movement.
EPICUREAN MOTIVATION
Nearly 188 years later and about 300 miles away in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, veteran watch executive and entrepreneur Jean-Marie Schaller was relaxing in his usual hangout, the kitchen. (“I like spaghetti. I don’t need caviar,” he says.) A watchmaker friend had recently given him a biography of Louis Moinet. Struck by the ingenuity and sophistication of Louis Moinet’s creations and the fact that the Frenchman was both an artist and a watchmaker, Schaller was inspired to relaunch the Moinet name in a company of his own. This was no idle thought. After all, Schaller already had under his belt two successful company launches: Daniel Roth in 1991 and the revival of Perrelet SA in 1995. He had also headed Lacoste’s watch division for a couple of years.
Schaller decided to create a watch company drawing on the inventive French watchmaker’s legacy. During Moinet’s lifetime, “he was considered the most important watchmaker that ever lived,” Schaller says of the artist, artisan and inventor who died in 1853. “After he passed away … his name became gradually forgotten,” so “I decided to relaunch his name,” says Schaller, the CEO and creative director of the watch company Les Ateliers Louis Moinet that he launched in 2004.
Although Schaller knew of Moinet’s many horological accomplishments, it wasn’t until 2013 that he and other watch experts realized that Moinet had indeed created the first chronograph—not Nicolas Rieussec. During a recent interview in Geneva, Schaller pointed to a photo of Louis Moinet’s Compteur de Tierces: “This piece was acquired three years ago in an auction here in Geneva,” he says. “Nobody knew it was the first chronograph, including me.
“We bought the piece, checked it and found out it was the first ever,” Schaller says. With the watch purchase came some significant documents, “the original letters we have from Mr. Moinet show that he created the first chronograph in 1816.” Then Schaller and his team “took another nine months to study the hallmarks on the back of the case,” and to have experts acknowledge the fact that it was the first chronograph.
AN INVENTOR IN AN AGE OF DISCOVERY
To fully appreciate the innovation of Moinet, consider that in the early 19th century, watchmakers were actively searching for new ways to measure time more accurately; for one, they wished to create better timepieces to assist with navigation at sea.
Born in Bourges, France, Moinet received training from a master watchmaker while he was still in school. At age 20 he traveled to Italy to study architecture, painting and sculpture. When he returned to France, he settled in Paris where he became a professor of fine arts at the Louvre. He revived his passion for watchmaking by training with his former teacher and creating fine clocks for some of the most prominent leaders of that time: Napoleon Bonaparte and Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, as well as U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Also a scholar, Moinet wrote and illustrated a reference book all about watchmaking: His 1848 Traité d’Horlogerie became an indispensable guide for watchmakers for decades. Plus, Moinet led the Chronometry Society of Paris, serving as its president.
“Louis Moinet was an artist, a watchmaker, a free spirit,” Schaller says.
“Watchmakers of his time sold themselves as artists, scholars. Watchmaking at the time was like computer science today.”
While today chronograph watches are common, Schaller says of the first one, “This piece by Moinet is like a da Vinci.” He was “creating a product ahead of his time.” In celebration of this year’s 200th anniversary of the remarkable invention, Ateliers Louis Moinet has created a limited-edition chronograph timepiece, the Memoris 200th Anniversary, whose design reflects the French watchmaker’ love of astronomy.
A COSMIC CHRONOGRAPH
The commemorative piece evokes the starry skies that inspired Moinet. Part of the Memoris collection, the new watch features an enameled hour dial, a translucent flange and counter brdge and a main plate decorated with constellations of stars. The main plate, visible behind the chronograph movement, is hand-painted a rich translucent blue hue. To create the stars, Ateliers Louis Moinet devised a process using a fixed graver whereby a custom-built lathe is affixed to a guillochage engine. Tapping the precision of the guillochage machine, artisans engrave the tiny stars to different depths and at various angles to maximize the light captured by each one. Achieving the unique shape of a star takes several engraving sessions.
To maximize the view of this starry background, the watch bears a transparent counter bridge in a translucent material developed by the company. The transparent blue of the flange only adds to the perception of depth in this scene, quite fitting for sky imagery.
The Memoris 200th Anniversary piece, fitted with a Louis Moinet LM54 caliber movement, showcases the entire chronograph function on the watch’s front in tribute to the invention. This column-wheel chronograph is fully integrated into the movement, its 147 hand-finished components mounted on top of the dial. A central hand indicates the 60-second counter, and the 30-minute chronograph counter is found at the 3 o’clock position.
Even before this Louis Moinet LM54 caliber movement was fitted into this year’s anniversary model, it had been deployed in two previous models of the Memoris chronograph collection. The LM54 has 302 parts, including 34 jewels. Itgenerates 28,800 vibrations an hour (or 4 hertz) and has a power reserve of 48 hours. The company plans to introduce additional commemorative timepieces later this year. Schaller still recalls what designer Daniel Roth said after the launch of his eponymous company: “I know one day you want to have your brand, look at Louis Moinet, that suits you well.” Roth may have been clairvoyant.
And indeed 12 years on, the relaunched Louis Moinet outfit is “a serious, independent company,” Schaller says, noting he and his staff members “see ourselves as [bringing to life] a creative company.” He adds: “We aim to share, to create marvels—I hope masterpieces—and to share them with good friends.
