1770ies. Wow. That's still in the so-called 'Ancien Regime', before Napoleon took Switzerland for a few years. Switzerland was a relatively loose confederacy ba

1770ies. Wow. That's still in the so-called 'Ancien Regime', before Napoleon took Switzerland for a few years. Switzerland was a relatively loose confederacy back then, a bunch of city states, small republics and subject territories. Very poor, except maybe for the watchmakers in Neuchatel. Even getting the supplies for such a machine must have been tough back then. All the more impressive.