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If you are fascinated by the small and large masterpieces with which people past and present have measured the passage of time, or by the milestones of the great watch manufactures, a visit to a watch museum is a journey through many centuries of technological history. In many of the places where fine mechanical watches are developed and made, a watch museum showcases more than just the history of a single watch brand.
The History of Timekeeping
During the Early and High Middle Ages, most people had no need for a clock. They did not perceive the passage of time as linear, but as an eternal alternation of day and night and as the cycle of the seasons, in which sowing, growth, harvest, and rest repeated themselves endlessly. Augustine declared that time was given by God; it was determined by nature and its ever-recurring cycles. Sunrise and sunset were the fixed points that marked the limits of the working day. Only the monks in the monasteries had to measure time in smaller units, since Benedict of Nursia had stipulated in his Rule that there must be fixed times for prayer, reading, meals, work, and sleep.
From the 14th century onward, people developed mechanical clocks capable of measuring ever smaller units of time. The first mechanical clock was mentioned in a document in 1335 and hung in the chapel of the Visconti Palace in Milan. Just one year later, a public tower clock was installed on a Milanese church. It struck the hours and thus set the rhythm of time. The first public clock in Germany was installed in Augsburg in 1364, followed by Hamburg in 1375 and Cologne in 1385. Most of these clocks had only an hour hand and announced with the stroke of a bell when another hour had passed.
Cities had to pay a fortune for these clocks at the time; after all, it was not only the complex mechanism that cost a great deal of money but also the constant upkeep: they had to be serviced, adjusted, and repaired again and again. By the time the Middle Ages came to an end, time had become something different. It was no longer given by God but was secular, and every individual was responsible for it. Ever more precise timekeeping brought about a genuine shift in society's consciousness, and some philosophers called clocks the key machines of the industrial age.
A Journey Through Time
The Watch Museum in Glashütte
Anyone passing the town sign of Glashütte is greeted with the words "Hier lebt die Zeit" ("Time lives here") and encounters timepieces at every turn. Even the elementary school has a small clock tower on its roof. Several major German makers of mechanical watches are based in Glashütte: Glashütte Original, Union Glashütte, Bruno Söhnle, and A.Lange & Söhne, but they are not the only ones producing watches here. Ever since Ferdinand Adolph Lange settled here in 1845 as the first master watchmaker, the tradition has continued unbroken. So it comes as little surprise that the German Watch Museum is located here.
Located in the center of the small town, the German Watch Museum brings together numerous exhibits on the history of horology and its associated craftsmanship under one roof. Even the period when the manufacturers were nationalized is documented and illustrated with exhibits. In addition to pocket watches, wristwatches, and precision pendulum clocks, visitors to the German Watch Museum in Glashütte can view historical watchmakers' tools and other chronometers.
Girard-Perregaux and Other Watch Museums in La-Chaux-de-Fonds
High above La-Chaux-de-Fonds, a high valley at an altitude of 1,000 meters in the Swiss Jura, the Villa Marguerite sits on a hill; its first floor houses Girard-Perregaux's own watch museum. The small private museum illustrates the more than two-hundred-year tradition of the house of Girard-Perregaux, but it is not the only watch museum presenting its treasures here.
After all, La-Chaux-de-Fonds is, in a sense, the cradle of watchmaking, and at the International Museum of Horology, the "Musée International d'Horlogerie", visitors can experience the history of timekeeping through more than 4,500 exhibits.
The exhibits range from the ancient sundial to the modern atomic clock, and here they are not only displayed but can also be conserved and – where necessary – professionally restored. On entering the museum, you can compare the large gear wheels, balance wheels, and escapements of tower clock movements with the 150 parts of a mechanical wristwatch, whose smallest components are barely visible to the naked eye.
The Longines Watch Museum
The name of the Longines brand derives from the location of its factory buildings, which were erected outside Saint-Imier on the "long meadows." This is now also home to the Longines watch museum, which is dedicated to the nearly 200-year history of Compagnie des Montres Longines Francillon SA.
Naturally, Longines' own creations are on display, including numerous pocket watches and wristwatches from a wide range of eras, along with chronographs and navigation instruments.
The Omega Museum
The small town of Biel in the Swiss canton of Bern is home to the Omega Museum, the oldest museum in Switzerland devoted entirely to the history of a single watch brand. Since the museum reopened in May 2010 after an extensive renovation, around 4,000 Omega watches can be admired here. Visitors can also explore plenty of history in old photographs, finely chased engravings, and historical tools.
These historical pieces include, for example, the original workbench of Louis Brandt, at which the watchmaker made his first watches in 1848. Switzerland's largest bilingual city produces not only the precision watches of Omega – now part of the Swatch Group – but also Swatch watches themselves and Rolex watches.
The Black Forest as Germany's Second Cradle
Watch museums are becoming increasingly popular with tourists, and in the Black Forest, with its many museums devoted to the cuckoo clock, the German manufacturer Junghans has also opened its own museum for enthusiasts. Since 2011, the company has showcased its 150-year tradition in a small but exquisite setting.
Perfect for a Day Trip
In many cases, then, the truly great places of horology are only a few ticks of the hand away, making a visit a must for enthusiasts. The watch museums in Germany and Switzerland display a wealth of fascinating sights and look forward to your visit!
