Julien-Hilaire Rodanet
1810 - 1884
Jean-Hilaire Rodanet
French chronometer-maker.
Aged 16, Rodanet moved to Paris and trained further with the chronometer-maker Joseph Thaddéus Winnerl, working with him for a dozen years.
His son, Auguste-Hilaire Rodanet, was also a watchmaker.
Key dates
1839
In 1839 he returned to his hometown of Rochefort-sur-Mer where he opened a watchmaking school. Over a ten-year period, he trained forty students, developed cylinder and lever escapements (1844), and made his first chronometer (1849). Henceforth, and until 1866, he devoted himself entirely to chronometry and received several awards for his work.