# Cylindre Pw With Famous Lepine Calibre 1



## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Hi alltogether,

here I want to present my newest bagain, an old cylindre pocket watch with the famous "Lepine calibre I",

made by the well-known watchmaker Valentin Stoss from Ulm in Germany (at least he is known in this city).

Valentin Stoss is also known as Veit (or Veith) Stoss and lived from 1782 to 1861 (more details later).

The movement, this "Lepine cal. I" is the first of five (exactly six) standard movements from switzerland and

france. You could have a look at all this calibres on my page, although the description of the pictures

there is in german language: http://www.mikrolisk.de/show.php/209/chapter_123

My pocket watch was made around 1820. The hunter case is made of silver, only the inner lid is gilded brass.

The case is somehow different to other hunter cases because it has no button to open it. You have to use your

finger nail to open it with a "nose" on both lids (front and back).

The inner lid is signed with "Valentin Stoss in Ulm", "Echappement a cylindre" (cylindre escapement) and

"Roue TrempÃ©e" (hardened escapement wheel). The outer back lid is signed with the case makers mark "LJV"

and a serial number 19815. I don't know to whom this mark belong.

The diameter of the watch is 47,5mm.

The dial is of course out of enamel with arabic letters (not roman!) and was never protected by a glass. The

blued steel hand with a cross decoration are quite beautiful!

The movement has got only one jewel, the visible end stone on the balance wheel bearing. On the other side of

the balance wheel pivot is a simple metal plate. All bearings are of brass, not jewelled.

Perhaps you will notice the stop work on the barrel, it is the stop work by Breguet with two cam wheels. Alas one

of those wheels is missing.

Now to the images:

The hunter case has got on the front side some pattern, the back lid is just plain.










The dial, quite cool! The lid on this side is plain, without any marks.










The back lid has got the case makers mark:










The inner dust cap with the signature and some descriptions of the watch. "Aiguilles" means "hands", with the center

square you can set the hands.










The movement... *fallInLove*...










Oh, and finally some details on Valentin Stoss:

He was born on the 13th novembre 1782. He opened his first studio in 1812 in Ulm in the "Hafengasse 259", where he

built clocks (bracket clocks), but also pocket watches and mathematical and surgical instruments.

In 1832 the famous watch maker Matthaeus Hipp began his apprenticeship at Valentin Stoss and stayed there for two

years. In 1840 Stoss invented a tool machine to cut and round up to 6 wheels at once. Two years later he got a price

for that.

Then in 1850 he worked less and less because of some illnesses, in 1859 he sold his studio to Phillip Hoerz, a well known

watch maker who built up a big manufacture for turret clocks.

In 1861 Valentin Stoss died. He got well known in whole Wuerttemberg (province in south-west germany).

Well, I cleaned and oiled this beauty last saturday and it runs quite accurate. Also it is quite silent. Most of my watches

are louder.

Regards,

Andreas


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## bridgeman (Dec 9, 2008)

Interesting-how common was it to have a watch WITHOUT glass as a design? and when did the change over to glass become poular?. Obviously the open face watches needed glass protection so that then puts the question when did hunter style covered watches start to become less popular-presumably on cost?


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Well, almost all verge watches with the winding square on the front (through the dial) does not have a glass. And other watches with a full hunter case have glasses in about 95%, as far as I noticed. But this watch here seems to have never had a glass, there is nothing to attach a glass bezel.

Perhaps the watch could be sold cheaper those days??? Flat glasses could be more expensive in the early 1800s - also as jewelled bearings!

Andreas


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## ngdesign (Nov 5, 2009)

the hands are beautiful 

Nice cleaning work too mikrolisk!

Thanks for your step by step too, i have just been practicing my skill taking one of my scrap movement apart and re-assembling it using your guide.

Still trying to find some spare parts to get it back to life.


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