Antide Janvier

Antide Janvier was a French clockmaker celebrated for extraordinarily complex astronomical clocks and planetariums, built largely by hand from an early age in the Jura before he moved to Paris. His astronomical clocks depicted the motion of the planets, lunar phases and other celestial mechanics with mechanical precision, and he served clients including the French royal court and, after the Revolution, Napoleon.

Several of Janvier's planetary clocks and astronomical regulators survive in French museum collections, including the Musée des Arts et Métiers and the Palace of Versailles, and are considered among the technical and artistic high points of French Enlightenment-era horology. His work sits at the intersection of horology and astronomy in a way distinct from the marine-chronometer tradition of contemporaries such as Berthoud and Le Roy.

Janvier's later life was financially difficult despite his renown, a common pattern among makers whose work was of extraordinary technical ambition but limited commercial series production; this is noted in French horological biographical literature rather than being a matter of dispute.