Jean – Antoine Lépine (18.11.1720 – 31.05.1814) was born in Chalex as son of a watchmaker he was first apprentice of Decroze, watchmaker in Sacconnex-en-Genevois, near Geneva. From there he moved to Paris in 1744, serving as apprentice to André – Charles Caron (1698–1775), at that time clockmaker to Louis XV. In 1756 he married Caron’s daughter Madelaine – François Caron and associated with André – Charles Caron, under ‘Caron et Lépine’, between 1756 and 1769 at the ‘Rue Saint-Denis’. The 12. 03. 1762 he was made Master and appointed Horloger du Roi (Clockmaker to the King) Louis XV in 1766, the same year he succeeded Caron. 1772 he’s recorded at the ‘Place Dauphine’ and between 1778 and 1779 he’s known to have been at the ‘Quai de l’Horloge du Palais’. In 1781, 1783 and 1787 he works at the ‘Rue des Fossés St. Germain l’Auxerrois, du coté du Louvre’ and 1789/90 he’s at the ‘Place des Victoires No. 12’.
In 1782, Pauline, his daughter married Claude – Pierre Raquet who was Lépine’s apprentice until he became master the 21. 04. 1785. 1792 Lépine was associated with Raquet and retires between 1793 and 1794 with 73 years. The workshop is then still named ‘Lépine’ was succeeded by descendants of Raquet until it was sold 1815.
He was also associated with the philosopher Voltaire, at his watch manufactory set up in 1770 at Ferney. It is not known the exact role he played in the Ferney manufactory but it is certain that he gave commissions to the workshops there until 1792. An unsigned memoir of 1784 reports that Lépine stayed in Ferney for 18 months and that he had watch movements made there with a value of 90,000 livres a year.
Around 1770, he devised a means of manufacturing a pocket watch that could be thinner, favouring the onward quest for further miniaturization (‘hanging barrel Lépine caliber’). His radical design broke with a 300-year tradition and ushered in the age of precision timekeeping, the modern pocket watch was born.
In addition to paving the way for the making of even thinner watches, this innovation was readily adaptable as the basic model for mass-producing watch-movements, a process that was to begin in the 19th century. Up to the 1840s, watches were all hand-finished, so that parts were not interchangeable.
The calibre was quickly adopted throughout France and today its basic design is what characterizes all mechanical watches. It is important to note that the term ‘Lépine’ can refer to both the calibre itself or a type of pocket watch with a flat, open-faced case in which the second wheel is placed in the axis of the winder shaft, in opposition to the savonete (or Hunter) watch where the second wheel and winder shaft are placed on perpendicular axes. This design has been known within the watch industry as the Lépine style ever since.
Lépine’s work profoundly influenced all subsequent watchmaking, particularly Abraham – Louis Breguet who used a modified version of the ‘calibre à ponts’ for his ultra slim watches. Indeed, except from the very start of his career Breguet almost always used Lépine calibres and then modified them.
Needless to say that as a clock and watchmaker to Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon Bonaparte, Lépine’s creations were well respected and in demand.
Antiquarian Horology 
