Jean Romilly

Jean Romilly was born in Geneva in 1714 and settled in Paris, where he became a master watchmaker in 1752. He contributed to Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie and made watches of high quality, including repeating watches and watches with centre seconds.

Museum records show Romilly working alongside other makers: the Victoria and Albert Museum holds a globe clock of 1783–85 that it associates with both Romilly and Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy. Watches signed simply 'Romilly' or with later forenames are not necessarily his and are not linked here.

How to recognise the work: watches signed Romilly à Paris are usually in gold cases, many with enamel; the catalogue includes an enamelled gold quarter-repeating watch of 1760–62 and watches with painted allegories of architecture and motherhood. Some watches signed J Romilly are catalogued by their museums as Swiss; the Atlas keeps the museum's attribution.

Romilly came from a Huguenot family of clockmakers from Gien-sur-Loire who had taken refuge in Geneva in 1627. Among his notable works was a watch that would run a whole year without winding, although it was Ferdinand Berthoud who later gave the idea the precision it needed.

Away from the bench he was one of the founders of the Journal de Paris in 1777, France's first daily newspaper, and wrote the theoretical articles on horology for Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie; his son Jean-Edme Romilly, a theologian, also contributed to it.