C.-A. Paillard

Charles-A. Paillard (1840-1895) was a watchmaker who investigated the properties of stainless steel and palladium balance springs in the 19th century.

Paillard experimented extensively with stainless steel as a balance spring material in the 1870s and regularly corresponded with other watchmakers on the subject. A series of letters and publications beginning in 1877 in Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie involved Paillard, Crausaz, and Moritz Grossmann, John Huguenin, Marc Glaser, among others, discussing the properties of stainless steel hairsprings. Paillard soon began working with palladium as a balance spring material, and this gained a great deal of attention for its chronometric properties after it was endorsed by Théodore Le Roy in London, among others.

By 1880, C.-A. Paillard was manufacturing and selling palladium balance springs from his shop in Geneva. Located at Rue Kléberg 27, the small workshop soon became the key producer of these springs for the entire chronometer industry. Although there was much controversy about the suitability and cost-effectiveness of palladium, notably from leading producer of steel springs Charles Dufaux, the material certainly had superior inherent characteristics. Paillard received many medals, and watches using his springs scored many victories, in the 1880s. In 1885 Paillard began producing pendulums and balance wheels from palladium.

Due to his advancing age and interest in experimentation and investigation, Paillard was uninterested in joining the FSR balance spring cartel. He died in 1895, the same year the cartel was established.