no, Switzerland did not invent mechanical watchmaking – L’Express

“Switzerland did not found mechanical watchmaking,” recalls Pascal Ravessoud, vice-president of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH). Traveling to Paris to present the FHH Academy’s activities around watchmaking education and knowledge, the Geneva FHH team set out the historical context for L’Express. “The beginnings of mechanical watchmaking in Europe date from the 13th century, with the rise of monumental clocks. We find the first traces in France, but also in Italy, in Germany and in all European countries with power stable.” Emmanuel Schneider, content director at the FHH, adds: “We know neither the birthplace nor the inventor of the motor-weight mechanical clock, the ancestor of contemporary mechanical watchmaking.”

And Switzerland in all this? To understand the role it plays today in this sector, we must go back to the middle of the 16th century. At this time, John Calvin’s Reformation banned ceremonial objects, notably jewelry, which were then largely manufactured in Switzerland. Jewelers find themselves technically unemployed. At the same time, a large number of Protestants, persecuted in Europe, came to take refuge there. The conjunction of these two events will promote the development of local watchmaking. “At the time, exchanges and sharing of different techniques were common. Above all, watchmakers traveled a lot,” says Pascal Ravessoud. There was then a certain permeability of the borders.”

Aurélie Streit, vice-president of the FHH, completes the picture by mentioning France, “a country historically a major producer of watches, particularly in the Jura region and in Paris.” Nowadays, tricolor watches are more popular than ever and are capitalizing on their past. New brands are born every year and those who have chosen to focus on movements designed and assembled in France emphasize this national specificity, to which enthusiasts are becoming increasingly sensitive.

The same is true in other European countries, which have also contributed to writing part of this history. Thus, Great Britain represents one of the cradles of watchmaking, especially thanks to marine chronometry, which allowed the establishment of longitude at sea, an invention of John Harrison. “This technique only arrived several decades later on the continent because the British kept it secret, in order to reserve it for their navy, points out Pascal Ravessoud. Indeed, he who masters the sea masters the world.”

Like other major European states, Germany has been a watchmaking land for a very long time. Emmanuel Schneider recalls that our neighbor began by developing a clock industry in the 17th century, in the mountainous massif of the Black Forest. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the rise of cuckoo clocks, specialties of this region. In 1845, the first watchmakers settled in Glashütte, a small town south of Dresden. Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded A. Lange & Söhne there, a brand which saw its activity interrupted by the Second World War and the nationalization of goods by the GDR regime, as was also the case for the town’s other factory, Glashütte Original.

In Southern Europe, the watchmaking history of Spain also knows its share of scholars and princes interested in mechanical watchmaking, explains the FHH team. Undoubtedly less well off compared to other nations, Spain nevertheless has some exceptional watchmakers and a popular brand, Festina, established in Barcelona during the Second World War. It has belonged to the Festina Lotus group for forty years.

On the Italian side, the roots have long been anchored in the territory. Emmanuel Schneider believes that artists, scientists and humanists like Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo and Filippo Brunelleschi have advanced watchmaking in the Boot. It also tells how Giovanni Panerai founded a store in 1860 which sold Swiss watches and at the same time manufactured measuring components. Marine equipment manufacturer, Panerai initially delivered diving tools. Subsequently, at the beginning of the 20th century, the brand became an official supplier to the Italian Royal Navy. “Panerai did not market any watches before launching into the civilian market in 1993,” he notes.

Beyond European borders, if there is a country deeply attached to the manufacture of watches for a hundred years, it is Japan, often considered as Switzerland’s great competitor. Japanese brands cover different price ranges: from Seiko to Grand Seiko, including Citizen or Casio. Regarding the Empire of the Rising Sun, Pascal Ravessoud evokes “a certain pride linked to timepieces made in Japan from the Second World War”.

In 1969, these manufacturers, notably Seiko, undermined traditional European watchmaking with their quartz watches. The big competition then came down to precision. However, quartz was unbeatable on this point. “It was a real paradigm shift, says the vice-president of the FHH. Seiko today remains a brand that focuses on precision, both in its mechanical and quartz movements.” And at Grand Seiko, he describes “infinite time devoted to adjusting the machines to achieve perfection in the manufacture of components“. A requirement that he compares to that of Swiss watchmakers.