Horological Meandering

Dear All:

The Swiss cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle officially have been awarded the status as UNESCO world heritage sites due to the urbanism of both cities, which are located in the Jura region of the Neufchâtel area. The UNESCO committee recognises the exceptional symbiosis of watchmaking industries and urban development, technology and architecture.

I am impressed and feel emotionally affected about this decision of the UNESCO committee on world cultural heritage sites!

Best,
Magnus

If I am not mistaken, JLC, IWC, and a few others are more isolated from other manufacturers.

(IWC is located in Schaffhausen, in he German speaking part of Switzerland, and JLC is home in the Vallée du Joux). But other famous watchmaking manufacturers include Cartier, Girard-Perregaux, TAG Heuer, Corum, Cartier, Breitling, Juvenia, the British Masters, Movado, Ulysse Nardin, Invicta, Gallet and others are located here.

Furthermore, Omega SA was founded there in 1848. In 1881, Achilles Ditesheim founded Movado. Hans Wilsdorf registered the trademark name "Rolex" in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1908.

Information from Wikipedia.

Best,
Magnus

...as they seem to be out on their own.  Thanks for information on the ones in the area.  Might be an interesting map to show where the major watch companies are geographically.

very close to Breguet, Audermars Piguet, Blancpains and others. They are basically located along the same street between Le Brassus and Valorbe (pic linked from click here ):



So I do not know how you could consider JLC as remote from the other. True, companies in the German speaking part could be considered being placed in a diaspora, such as IWC or H. Moser & Cie.

Best,
Magnus

Wonder what took them so long to recognize it?
But better late then never
Regards
Damian

(info from wikipedia) and put it on a so-called 'Tentative List. Such a list is based on an inventory a country must first take of its significant cultural and natural properties. A country may not nominate properties that have not already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property from this list to place into a Nomination File. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file.

At this point, the file is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. The Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List, and sometimes defers the decision to request more information from the country who nominated the site. There are ten selection criteria - a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list.

For a list of criteria please visit Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org

The UNESCO now keeps an web-database on the La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle Site (Ref. 1302):
whc.unesco.org

Best,
Magnus
This message has been edited by Magnus Bosse on 2009-06-29 12:45:19