Although Frédéric Ecaubert had spent some time devising yet another form of spindle work holding for the watchmakers' lathe, it was, sadly, a dead end, and it might well be that not even a prototype was made, yet along a production batch.
The problem that Mr Ecaubert faced was the fact that by the 1880s, Charles Moseley's 1857/58 design of a hollow-spindle lathe for watchmakers with its draw-in collet and the incorporation, by 1862, of high-speed, hardened steel spindles and bearings had become the accepted standard - and one impossible to improve upon. The Moseley lathe had been first offered for sale in 1859 and resembled what is now known as the "Geneva" type with its round bed and generally light build. Today, the same system prevails with the two common types, the light "Geneva" and later heavier WW (Webster Whitcombe), using it exclusively.