32 Facts About Ferdinand Berthoud

Ferdinand Berthoud's father, Jean Berthoud, was a master carpenter and architect.

Ferdinand Berthoud was a burgher of Couvet, burgher of Neuchatel, and justice of the peace for Val-de-Travers from 1717 to 1732.

Ferdinand Berthoud's mother, Judith Berthoud was born in Couvet.

Ferdinand Berthoud had four brothers: Abraham ; Jean-Henry, justice of the peace for Val-de-Travers, clerk of the court in Les Verrieres, barrister in Cressier, and an expert watchmaker and clockmaker; Jean-Jacques, a draughtsman, and Pierre, a farmer and clockmaker.

In 1741, when he was fourteen, Ferdinand Berthoud became clockmaking apprentice to his brother Jean-Henry in Couvet, at the same time receiving a sound scientific education.

In 1745, aged 18, Ferdinand Berthoud moved to Paris to improve his skills as a watchmaker and clockmaker.

Ferdinand Berthoud exercised his talents as a journeyman, working with master watchmakers in the Paris community.

From 1755 onwards, Ferdinand Berthoud was entrusted with the task of writing a number of reference articles on watchmaking for the Encyclopedie methodique, published between 1751 and 1772 under the direction of the writer and philosopher Diderot and the mathematician and philosopher d'Alembert.

Ferdinand Berthoud published his first specialist work in 1759, L'Art de conduire et de regler les pendules et les montres, a l'usage de ceux qui n'ont aucune connaissance d'horlogerie.

In 1763, Ferdinand Berthoud was appointed by the King to inspect the H4 sea watch made by John Harrison in London, in the company of mathematician Charles-Etienne Camus, a member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, and astronomer Joseph-Jerome Lefrancois de La Lande.

Ferdinand Berthoud reported that he wore the watch personally in Brest and was present for the tests.

In 1765, Ferdinand Berthoud undertook a second trip to London to meet Harrison through the offices of Count Heinrich von Bruhl, Minister of Saxony.

Harrison refused to present his creations to Ferdinand Berthoud, knowing that he was fully capable of using them to benefit the French Navy.

In 1769, Ferdinand Berthoud sent for his nephew Pierre-Louis Berthoud, commonly known as Louis Berthoud, a talented young watchmaker and clockmaker, inviting him to come to Paris from Couvet, Switzerland, to pursue his apprenticeship.

Ferdinand Berthoud received a royal commission for 20 sea clocks.

In 1791, Ferdinand Berthoud supplied four marine chronometers to Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, to aid his expedition to search for Laperouse with the frigates Recherche and Esperance.

In 1795, Ferdinand Berthoud was elected First Class Resident Member of the Mechanical Arts section of France's National Institute.

On 20 June 1807, Ferdinand Berthoud died childless at the age of 80.

Ferdinand Berthoud was buried in Groslay, in the Montmorency Valley, where a monument commemorates him.

In 1752 at the age of 25, seven years after he arrived in Paris, Ferdinand Berthoud submitted an equation clock to the Royal Academy of Sciences, thus demonstrating his extraordinary proficiency in the art of watchmaking.

Ferdinand Berthoud filed various sealed envelopes with the French Royal Academy of Sciences.

Ferdinand Berthoud devoted himself to research and passing on his knowledge through his publications.

In 1759, Ferdinand Berthoud published a successful popular treatise, L'Art de conduire et de regler les pendules et les montres.

Ferdinand Berthoud's work was characterised by regular projects accompanied by detailed requests.

Two years later, in 1775, Ferdinand Berthoud published another work, Les longitudes par la mesure du temps ou methode pour determiner les longitudes en mer avec le secours des horloges marines, suivie du recueil des tables necessaires au pilot pour reduire les observations relatives a la longitude et a la latitude.

In 1787, Ferdinand Berthoud published De la Mesure du Temps ou supplement au traite des horloges marines et a l'Essai sur l'horlogerie, contenant les principes d'execution, de construction et d'epreuves des petites horloges a longitudes et l'application des memes principes de construction aux montres de poche, ainsi que plusieurs construction d'horloges astronomiques.

In 1802, Ferdinand Berthoud published one of his most important works: Histoire de la mesure du temps par les horloges, in which he demonstrates his outstanding knowledge of the art of horological mechanics.

Ferdinand Berthoud is the only watchmaker to have published the findings of all his research in a detailed, methodical manner.

Gifted with a genuine spirit of scientific engineering and an extraordinary capacity for work, Ferdinand Berthoud performed more experiments than any other watchmaker of his day.

Ferdinand Berthoud left behind him an extraordinary output in a variety of fields: sea chronometers, watches and decorative clocks, specialist tools, and scientific measurement instruments, as well as publishing scores of written works and specialist dissertations, totalling over 4,000 pages and 120 copperplates.

Ferdinand Berthoud's work is permanently on display in a large number of museums in various countries worldwide, in particular at France's National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, the International Museum of Horology in Switzerland, and the British Museum in London.

Ferdinand Berthoud is mentioned in the comedy film Les Tontons flingueurs when Antoine Delafoy's father asks for the hand of Ferdinand's niece.