====== Arnold, John ======
{{wst>image_r|Arnold,_John|John Arnold (1736-1799)}}
**John Arnold** was an English watchmaker.

John Arnold was born in [[1736]], probably in Bodmin, Cornwall, and died [[1799]] in London.

His father was a watchmaker and his uncle a gunsmith, which probably explains his early interest in precision engineering and metalwork.

He became famous at a young age with the invention of the smallest [[repeater]] of that time. He was the first to design a watch which was convenient and precise, and introduced the term [[chronometer]] in the modern sense. In addition to the development and production of [[Marine chronometer]]s, he was responsible for further groundbreaking inventions such as the principle of [[chronometer escapement]] and the cylindrical coil spring.

Together with his son John Roger, he founded a company that, among other things, supplied the Royal Navy as well as famous explorers such as James Cook, Flinders, Vancouver, John Franklin and Dr. Livingston with his watches.

He was a close friend of the famous French watchmaker [[Abraham-Louis Breguet]]. As a tribute to John Arnold Breguet in [[1808]] built his first [[tourbillon]] into one of Arnold's marine chronometers.


{{tag>Biographies}}