Horological Meandering

I will be visiting La Chaux-de-Fonds in January 08 for approx. 2 days while on a longer trip through Europe.  I do plan to visit the Watch Museum there but does anyone on this site have recommendations for visiting specific watchmakers not to be missed?  Tight schedule, etc.   I'm not sure if I can visit the new location near there (Les Bois) for Franck Muller since I have 4 of his watches in my collection.    Does anyone have something special to suggest I not miss if you had a short visit here?  Most appreciate any feedback.   I have the watch bug big time (caught it from my father and husband).   I go to another watch mecca on Thursday (annual trip to Singapore - big temptations but mostly looking and trying not to drool on any watches).

 

 

 

 

which is a MUST-DO, one Manufacture springs to mind. This is a manufacture that has had ladies watches at the forefront before the recent fad to "include" ladies range. It made the world's 1st series production of wrist-watches (in gold cases to resist salt-water corrosion).

It probably revived the fashion for carillion ding-dong watches and it's tourbillons are amongst the most beautiful iconic designs....

Can you guess it yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girard-Perregaux and it's baby brother - Jean Richard, both have museums in old villas but since their recent bad experience with robbers, I'm not sure what pre-visit procedures are.......

Regards,

MTF

Sorry for my delay in guessing but I was going to say GP.   I had a bit of trouble logging in which is now fixed.   Thanks for the advise.  I don't have a GP in my collection but I've looked at a number of them and will look more.   I will definately not miss the museum.   

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a very interesting town with several nice museums, not just the MIH which is mandatory, of course, and some great examples of art deco architecture.  
www.chaux-de-fonds.ch
There is also a watch museum in Le Locle which is about 15 minutes away by car (Ulysse Nardin, Claret, etc. too).  I don't think there is much to see in Les Bois yet as Müller only recently started preparing to move part of their production there.  But you can certainly go to Watchland. Geneva is I would quess only one and 3/4 hours from La Chaux-de-Fonds by car or train.  Except for IWC you have almost the entire Swiss watch industry in the area, so make your choice.
What else do you have in your collection?
Pictures?
(Remember your snow boots in January, La Chaux-de-Fonds has lots of snow most years, they measure in meters, not centimeters)
Don

G'day,

the GP Museum is still closed for public visits and probably will not be open for visits in early 2008. But there´s always a chance to visit the brands of Girard-Perregaux and Jeanrichard; doing such will need to arrange a visit, for which to do i´d recommend to get in touch with the brands via their websites. There´s a "contact form" section on both:

www.girard-perregaux.com

www. jeanrichard.com m

In La Chaux-De-Fonds, a place not to miss is the MIH Museum. Not far away there´s the "Musee Horlogerie du Locle" in the pittoresque Chateau Monts in Le Locle, which is well worth a visit due to the wonderful automatons.

For watch brands, La Chaux-De-Fonds is a great place.
There are Girard-Perregaux and Jeanrichard, but a number of brands more:
- Greubel Forsay/CompliTime
- Ebel
- Breitling
- Cartier
- Corum
- Ulysse Nardin

Cheers,

Peter

Greetings,

I've tried to get appointments at AP and GP and AP will not give me an appointment for a visit/tour unless it is requested by the NYC office.  GP is closed to touring until May (moving to a larger facility).  SO - I am planning to definately visit the Horological Museum on Tuesday 5th.   My husband I may try to get another appt. on Monday Feb 4th but time is running out before we leave for Europe next week.   I'm really disappointed about not being able to visit AP on our drive to La Chaux -de-Fonds on Monday Feb 4th since AP may be my next watch (so many choices!).

I go to Dresden also and plan to tour (I have an appt) at Glashutte and will go to A. Lange & Sohne also while there.

Thanks for all the advise on this subject - I may try to visit Watchland since one of the posters asked about my collection.  I don't have great pictures of them all but I'll have to do that in the future.  All my watches are in pristine condition - automatics kept in 2 orbita siena winders.

I have 3 Franck Mullers:  1998 Wallstreet in Plat - - automatic -  number 8 of 12 - pristine condition - just serviced by FM in NYC.  I have a jumbo Curvex crazy hours / color dreams - automatic  in White gold and a little quartz curvex in rose gold - about 2 years old

Corum golden bridge in rose gold ( may try to visit Corum) - mechanical skeleton - my new obsession - love to watch this one run. I also have a Corum giant bubble in ORANGE - automatic.   

2 Jaeger LeCoultre - both in Stainless - classic reverso - date - larger size - husband wears and my every day 8 day reserve reverso - both mechanical.   Big fan of JLC.  

BRM (CR-44) in yellow - love this one too - automatic in stainless

Panerai - Luminor - white face - mechanical watch in Stainless

Bell and Ross - titanium - BR - 01 big one 46 mm

Meistersinger - #2 - stainless - interesting way of looking at time - 1 hand watch

A few other assorted watches - mostly jewelry type quartz watches I collected in my youth before I got serious with watches.  The FM quartz watch was my last purchase of a quartz watch.   I got the bug from my father who collected pocket watches.  I have about a dozen or more of those which I love to play with (wind) - particularly the railroad watches - the most fun.   I love winding the mechanical watches.

Thanks.

Gail