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Repeater watch

Watchmaker: Pierre Michaud
ca. 1755
Not on view
The scene on the back of the watchcase is copied in miniature from a genre painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) titled The Father Reading the Bible to His Children, which was exhibited to great acclaim in the 1755 Paris Salon. The watchmaker, originally from Orléans, became a master in Geneva in 1771. He seems to have had an earlier career in Paris, as this watch would indicate, but there are no traces of him in the records of the time. He is likely to have been a Protestant, as the choice of the scene on the enameled case would suggest, and his religion would have prevented his becoming a master watchmaker in Paris.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Repeater watch
  • Maker: Watchmaker: Pierre Michaud (working ca. 1755–after 1771)
  • Date: ca. 1755
  • Culture: French, Paris
  • Medium: Gold, enamel
  • Dimensions: Diameter: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm)
  • Classification: Horology
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.190.1591
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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