page_title: Ligne
section_title: Watchmaking
hierarchical_section_title: Ligne / Current use / Watchmaking
context_page_description: The ligne or line or Paris line, is a historic unit of length used in France and elsewhere prior to the adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century, and used in various sciences after that time. The loi du 19 frimaire an VIII states that one metre is equal to exactly 443.296 French lines.
  It is vestigially retained today by French and Swiss watchmakers to measure the size of watch movements, in button making, and ribbon manufacture.
context_section_description: There are 12 lignes to one French inch (pouce). The standardized conversion for a ligne is 2.2558291 mm (1 mm = 0.443296 ligne), and it is abbreviated with the letter L or represented by the triple prime, ‴.  One ligne is the equivalent of 0.0888 international inch.
  This is comparable in size to the British measurement called "line" (one-twelfth of an English inch), used prior to 1824.
caption: The ligne is still used by French and Swiss watchmakers
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