Manufacture
Tick Talk provides a captivating account of his visit to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the historical heart of Swiss watchmaking, and its renowned Musée international d��horlogerie. His narrative highlights the town's unique origins, purpose-built for horology, and offers a visual tour of the museum's avant-garde architecture and exhibits. The post also touches upon the frustrating yet ultimately rewarding search for historical remnants of chronometry in Neuchâtel.
This spring the Mrs and I enjoyed several days touring La Chaux-de-Fonds. The attraction was a visit to the Musée international d’horlogerie.
Actually, the town itself really shouldn’t even be there. When established in the mid-17th century, there was no local water source and the land was poor for farming. This alone would have been fatal to habitation; however, the purpose of the town was very specific. It was to serve as a center for watchmaking! This focus became irrevocable following a devastating fire in 1794, when re-construction of streets and buildings almost exclusively reflected the needs of the watchmaking industry.
With a couple of days to spare, we devoted some time to its world famous watch museum. An idea of the local watchmaking school, the Musée opened in 1902. The present avant-garde structure, buried within a hillside park, was opened in 1974. I took too many pictures considering the excellent catalog available, but here are a few views to whet your appetites.
When planning a visit, be sure to devote the better part of a day to take in this wonderful homage to horlogerie.
While in Neuchatel a few days earlier, we sought out the ancient Observatory from where legendary marques such as Nardin and Ditisheim had their chronometers certified. It was very frustrating to find that nothing survived in substance or memory of this noble past, but a vague referral to the Musée offered some hope. Initially, the lone staffer simply continued this trend of historical ignorance. Fortunately, a very dusty and crammed bookstore yielded some real treasures, including books on Observatory testing, Ulysse Nardin Marine Chronometers, and famous regleur’s of Neuchatel. My luggage limit would be tested!
Next, we headed into the streets of La Chaux-de-Fonds with our brochure, “Watchmaking Town Planning”. This handy little pamphlet, in three languages with map, highlighted historical watchmaking addresses that could be visited in a couple of well-planned forays.
Another thoughtful brochure guided us to the architectural wonders of La Chaux-de-Fonds, including some exciting early creations of their famous son Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris aka Le Corbusier. Heck, I even learned that Louis Joseph Chevrolet, of automobile fame, was born in this very industrious town.
We also enjoyed evening walks among the residential neighbourhoods. Our domicile was a family-owned block of building which married a butcher shop with a restaurant and hotel. I can heartily recommend the cheval or fondue.
Soon enough we bid adieu to La Chaux-de-Fonds and boarded the ever-efficient Swiss trains for a short hop to our next destination where we would start the long walk back to Geneva along the crest of the Jura Mountains. Ah, but that is for Part II. Meanwhile, here are some cityscapes taken from the tallest building we could find ;-)
Superb pictures, great post. I am specially happy to have discovered, through your pictures, the Neuchâtel Obervatory, which is a must see for a fan of Chronometry! Thank you so much for this post, Tick-Talk. Nicolas
the next stretch of this agreeable voyage. Cheers Francois
And a nice shot of late 1990's era Vacheron Constantin watches from the museum. :-) Do you collect pocket watch chronometers from other makers? Bill
Thanks for sharing. Joseph
...maybe they need you for more niche reporting! Very interesting and a great photo diary... Thanks G
This definitely makes me want to go, too, Dean. Your photos are great, all of them. But my favorite is of your beautiful "Deepstream" Overseas. More evidence of what a great travel watch these Overseas are. You, Joseph and Sebs are making the case! Best regards, respo
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