…stories not of the watches and their technical marvel, but of visits with the watchmakers themselves.
Rarely are watch movements made with a few extra parts included, just in case…
Simon De Burton, is a highly respected journalist and author combining his passion for classic cars, motorbikes and watches in his work.
The synergy between people coming together ultimately results in often unexpected and refreshing projects
Millions of pocket watches still exist in drawers, safes and museums. During the life of many, their gold cases were often melted down, their material value being higher than the value of the actual pocket watch. Untold numbers were destroyed, but many still remain, vestiges of a by-gone era.
Recently viewed in the metal during the Geneva Watch Days, a watch that looks simple but is highly complex (in a constructive way). Images and films do not do justice to a beautiful timepiece.
…founder of RedBar Group, a worldwide collective with over 40 chapters spread across 4 continents
….an artisanal workshop can resemble a tool room of a large manufacturing complex.
The surviving movement remains a living memory of watchmakers time spent over a century ago to produce a very high-end timepiece.
Antique tools, another era.
The original Tick Tock
The Elgin National Watch Company, better known as Elgin Watch Company, was one of the largest US watch manufactures in history between 1864 and 1968.
Rolands Story…
I recently had the privilege to carry out some work on ‘No.4’ by Buchanan. The regulator had been in America for some years before being shipped over to the UK where it has been ever since.
The watch shown here was finished and adjusted by a student (or students) in Le Locle between 1941-1945.
Their social importance is demonstrated in early historical letters, which indicate how the purchase of a pocket watch is used to show off one’s wealth to other social elites…
The future of the watch industry is in its people. Those people need to be made and educated. That is unlike today when good members of the watch industry are produced by accident.
An interview with a North American watchmaker…
Once owned by the wife of Jacques Nardin (1892-1950), a member of the Le Locle family of chronometer makers, is one of the most charming horological visits that can be made in the Canton of Neuchatel.
…my first venture into the world of Grasshopper escapements. Already sculptural by nature the Grasshopper escapement geometry lends itself…