History
Century
- XV
- XVI
- XVII
-
XVIII
- Abraham Louis Perrelet
- Abraham-Louis Breguet
- Antide Janvier
- Edward John Dent
- Ferdinand Berthoud
- Frédéric Japy
- Frédéric Louis Favre-Bulle
- Henri Louis Jaquet-Droz
- J. Louis Benjamin Audemars
- Jacques Frédéric Houriet
- James Cox
- Jean André Lepaute
- Jean Antoine Lépine
- Jean François Bautte
- Jean Frédéric Leschot
- Jean Moïse Pouzait
- Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué
- John Arnold
- John Ellicot
- Joseph-Thaddeus Winnerl
- Josiah Emery
- Louis Antoine Breguet
- Louis Moinet
- Louis-Frédéric Perrelet
- Pierre Augustin Caron dit Beaumarchais
- Pierre Frédéric Ingold
- Pierre Jaquet-Droz
- Pierre Le Roy
- Pierre-Louis Berthoud
- Robert Robin
- Thomas Earnshaw
- Thomas Mudge
- Urban Jürgensen
- William James Frodsham
-
XIX
- Aaron L. Dennison
- Achille Brocot
- Antoine Le Coultre
- Antoine Léchaud
- Auguste Lucien Vérité
- Charles Fasoldt
- Charles Frodsham
- Charles-Edouard Guillaume
- Constant Girard
- Edmond Jaeger
- Edouard Koehn Sr
- Edward Howard
- Ferdinand Adolph Lange
- Georges Frédéric Roskopf
- Georges-Auguste Leschot
- Hans Wilsdorf
- Henri Grandjean
- Henri Lepaute
- Henri Robert Ekegren
- Jean Celamis Lutz
- Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin
- Jean-Adrien Philippe
- John Harwood
- Jules Jürgensen
- Julien-Hilaire Rodanet
- Karl Moritz Grossmann
- Louis Leroy
- Louis Richard
- Louis-Clément Breguet
- Lyman W. Tompson
- Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec
- Sylvain Mairet
- Ulysse Nardin
- Victor Kullberg
Ferdinand Berthoud
1727-1807
Swiss clockmaker and chronometer maker.
Served his apprenticeship with his brother, Jean-Henri, a pendulum maker.
Established in Paris in 1745.
Disciple of Julien Le Roy.
Clockmaker to the Navy (nominated in 1762).
Clockmaker to the King (nominated in 1773).
Member of the Institute (nominated in 1795).
Member of the Royal Society of London.
Became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in the reign of Napoleon I.
Pioneer of chronometry in France (with Pierre Le Roy son).
Made his first chronometer in 1754.
1768
Adopted perforated stones (rubies or sapphires) in clockmaking (English specialty initiated by Nicolas Fatio in 1704).
1782
Invention of a spring escapement. Invention concomitant but probably obtained independently from those of John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw.
1786
Improved the self-compensating balance wheel.
Conducted considerable experimental research, including:
- Essai sur l’horlogerie (Essay on clockmaking) (1763)
- Traité des Horloges Marines (Treatise on Marine clocks) (1773)
- Histoire de la Mesure du Temps (The History of Time Measurement) (1802)
- Ferdinand Berthoud is moreover the author of the watchmaking texts of the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert.


