About this user
From the very beginning, Louis Moinet had an appointment with time. Born into a well-to-do farming family of Bourges, France, in 1768, he was a bright and diligent student who soon discovered that his ambitions were not to be realized in farming but in the classroom. During his studies, he distinguished himself in classical subjects and eagerly earned honors in academic competitions. Young Louis was introduced to the world of horology, the art and science of creating timepieces, and he spent almost all his free time by the side of a master watchmaker. He was also privately tutored in drawing by an Italian painter.
By age 21, Louis Moinet became irresistibly drawn to Italy, where fine art dominated life and offered promise to the gifted young painter. He relocated to Rome, where he lived for five years studying architecture, sculpting, and painting. There he was introduced to members of the French Academy, which comprised the most celebrated artists of the time. Moinet went on to Florence to refine his art and pursue a career.
Moinet returned to Paris and was appointed as Professor of Fine Arts at the Louvre. He also renewed his theoretical and practical studies of horology, an art which he still loved most passionately. He re-established contact with his former master watchmaker, and in less than a decade the master was to find himself in the position of student to Moinet.
Louis Moinet became acquainted with Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1817, when Breguet was already quite famous. Recognizing Moinets worth at once, Breguet invited him to work and live under the same roof in Breguets Paris home. Louis became Breguets personal advisor and, from that moment on, science and genius began to work hand in hand in the interest of time and art. When Breguet passed away in 1823, Moinet left the house on the Quai de l´Horloge and continued shaping his own unique place in watchmaking.
Making and designing timepieces soon engaged all his time, and acquiring its tools required him to frequent Switzerland, where he spent extended periods of time. Louis Moinet was appointed president of the Chronometry Society of Paris. His peers recognized him as a genius.
Ultimately, art and watchmaking shared the same stage in Moinets life. He would be commissioned to create clocks for the most important people of his time—Napoleon, King George IV, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe among others. Louis Moinet invigorated and altered the course of the world's ability to keep time.
