Antide Janvier (1751-1835) was born in Briva, France, the son of a farmer. His aptitude for mechanics and science was recognised and at an early age he was sent to the Abbé Tournier. He obviously excelled there for by the age of fifteen he had already made a complicated astronomical clock with mean, solar and sidereal time and incorporating an orrery, an achievement with beyond most competent and experience clockmakers. By the age of of nineteen, the already famous prodigy presented Louis XV with an even more complicated astronomical clock. In 1784, he was appointed clockmaker to Louis XVI and given a workshop in the Louvre. He remained there until 1793 when, after a brief period of imprisonment, he was made commissioner in charge of arms manufacture and was responsible for the conversion of timekeeping into decimalization. With the rise of Napoleon, Janvier's work flourished and he established a clockmaking school. He worked on complicated projects with other great clockmakers including Breguet and Raingo.
Janvier probably used several casemakers. However, it is certain that he patronised the ébéniste F. Schwerdfeger for in an inventory found after the latter's death in 1803 there were eight clock cases made for Janvier for 150 francs