This old Paul Odobey clock, whose mechanism can be seen inside Saint-André church, has been telling the time for almost 100 years, and was installed by Alphonse Salle, a clockmaker in Briançon, in 1912.
Paul Odobey was a major manufacturer of building clocks between 1880 and 1920. Succeeding his father Louis Delphin Odobey, his company was one of the largest in France. In the region, he was responsible for numerous building clocks, including those for the Collegiate Church in Briançon and the Church of Le Bez in La-Salle-Les-Alpes.
"Of the horizontal type with parallel gears, it is set in a rectangular iron frame, with the axes for winding the two weights on one side of the clock. It is the very slow fall of the weights that transmits its force to the whole. The weights, made from a block of stone, are very heavy. This force flows slowly, step by step, to the rhythm of the pendulum over the entire height of the bell tower. The pendulum is the clock's regulating organ. The link between the pendulum and the gears is the escapement. Both weights have to be wound once a week; this has been done for the past four years by Robin Peyron, who succeeded his grandfather Jean Barnéoud-Rousset. Apart from a few recurring problems with frost in cold winter weather blocking the mechanism, the clock has been running like clockwork for a century... So let's wish it a long life...".
Extract from "La Gazette de Puy-Saint-André
