THE LOUIS MOINET ‘COMPTEUR DE TIERCES’
Louis Monet Ultravox / Credit: Louis Monet
People these days are very fond of the saying, “history is written by the winners,” especially when viewed through a postmodernist lens. The story of the stopwatch is not so far from that saying, given its inventor received little to no credit for most of modern history. In fact, it was only in 2012 that it was discovered that the man who was originally accredited with the invention of the ‘modern’ stopwatch, was actually beaten to it by 5 years. And even then, the earliest record of a ‘stopwatch’ goes back to the 1690s…so what’s up?
In 2012, at a Christie’s auction, it was revealed that Louis Moinet made what he called the ‘Compteur de tierces’ in 1816; years before Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec, who made a stopwatch for King Louis XVIII in 1821. For decades Rieussec was thought to be the inventor of the modern stopwatch, so it was quite a shock to the watch world when this was discovered. But what about the ‘first stopwatch’, not modern? Well, in 1695, watchmaker Samuel Watson invented the ‘Physician’s Pulse Watch’, which measured time up to 1/5th of a second. The difference between this and the ‘modern’ versions made in the 19th century was that the stopping mechanism stopped the entire movement and could not be reset. Useful for a doctor, but not exactly for timing horse races, as was Louis XVIII’s hobby. And thus, this great gap in functionality is what has led to the designation of ‘first modern stopwatch’ for Moinet’s invention and ‘first stopwatch’ for Watson’s. Moinet’s reset mechanism remained a technological marvel, and many watchmakers tried to reconstruct it (or improve upon it) throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, to no avail. Alas, it would take nearly 100 years before Heuer would invent a more accurate stopwatch, that could measure time up to 1/100th of a second and reset similarly to Moinet’s.
Much like the origins of the self-winding movement, the stopwatch is still a bit of an enigma. And although we have a lot more clarity on its origins today, there’s certainly more to its story.
By: Andres Ibarguen