Clockmaker / marine-chronometer maker
Pierre Le Roy
Also recorded as: Le Roy, Pierre · Julien Le Roy
Designed a marine timekeeper (1766) whose detent escapement and compensation anticipated the modern chronometer.
Son of the celebrated royal clockmaker Julien Le Roy, Pierre Le Roy presented his marine timekeeper to Louis XV in 1766. It combined a detached detent escapement, a temperature-compensated balance and a balance spring adjusted for isochronism — principles that Arnold and Earnshaw would industrialise in England.
- Country
- France
- City / centre
- Paris
- Life / active
- 1717–1785
- Status
- Historical individual
- Key people
- Pierre Le Roy; Julien Le Roy (father)
Innovations & specialities
- Detent escapement (marine timekeeper, 1766)
- Compensation balance
- Isochronous balance-spring adjustment
Catalogue records naming Pierre Le Roy
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Matched by name in the source catalogues. Attributions are as stated by each holding institution or auction house.
