Time keeps on ticking in the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
1 April 2024
Everyone in modern society is familiar with the terms second, minute, hour, day, week, month, (leap) year, decade, century, millennium, day, night and seasons.
However, who knows that a year does not have exactly 365 or 366 days (a leap year) but ‘only’ 365.2425 days ( the exact duration of one orbit of the Earth around the sun)?
Who knows or has an idea of a femtosecond (one trillionth of a second), a nanosecond (one billionth of a second), or a microsecond (one-millionth of a second)?
Le Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds, equipment for the femtosecond
These time units may not be relevant in everyday life. Still, they are fundamental for business, computing, telecommunications, air travel, astronomy, space travel, satellites, computers, artificial intelligence, climate research, and other (scientific) applications.
Le Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds, the international museum of time measurement in La-Chaux-de Fonds (canton of Neuchâtel), shows, among other things, this modern time measurement, its applications, and its history.
For centuries, Switzerland has been a world leader in research, innovation, production, marketing, and global export of watches and other devices of time measurement.
The Observatory of Neuchâtel
The measurements of the Neuchâtel Observatory (1858-2007) are still considered the best in the world. This institute pioneered research in precision and atomic time measurement.
Research at the observatory resulted in the 1967 international agreement (le Temps atomique international, TAI) on the atomic second as a unit of time. In 2007, the observatory’s activities were transferred to the University of Neuchâtel and CSEM (Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique).
Neuchâtel, the CSEM
Many villages and towns, especially in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Bern, Jura, Neuchâtel, and Schaffhausen, manufacture world-renowned or lesser-known brands and conduct pioneering research in time measurement and astronomy.
Le Locle, Tissot
It is no coincidence that La-Chaux-de Fonds is home to the world’s most advanced time measurement museum, with the most extensive collection of devices and a millennia-old history of time measurement.
Indeed, this museum stands in the ‘Métropole horlogère‘, with Le Locle, the world’s ticking heart of clockmaking production and innovation, and Unesco World Heritage Sites.
The Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds, telescope of the Observatory of Neuchâtel
For centuries, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle (canton of Neuchâtel) have been almost entirely devoted to researching and producing devices for time measurement. Town planning, housing, education, factories, employment, and prosperity are geared to this.
Le Musée d’horlogerie in Le Locle
Le Musée d’horlogerie du Locle and the exhibition in the town hall in Le Locle also offer an overview of this history. Because the museum’s building in La Chaux-de-Fonds is celebrating its jubilee year, this contribution focuses on its collection.
A separate contribution will cover the museum in Le Locle and some other leading museums in this field (including Longines in St Imier, Omega and Swatch in Biel, Audemars Piquet in Le Brassus, Patek Philippe in Geneva, Beyer in Zurich, IWC in Schaffhausen, and the CSEM scientific institute in Neuchâtel).
Entrance of the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
The Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds was founded in 1902 and was initially housed in the École de l’horlogerie. Since 1974, it has been housed in a concrete complex largely underground in the Parc des Musées (museum park). The other museums in this park are the Historical Museum and the Art Museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Anyone visiting the museum should take their time. The collection is extensive, arranged thematically and chronologically, with interactive, written and audiovisual guidance in French, German and English. Just as a look through a telescope in an observatory is always an exciting experience, the millenniums of history, equipment and developments of time measurement are also fascinating.
The collection was initially based on donations from regional industrialists and teachers at the École de l’horlogerie. The Société des fabricants d’horlogerie was the main donor for a long time. Gradually, (international) donations, bequests, and purchases from others became increasingly important.
Its worldwide reputation, maintenance and repair expertise and the (financial) support of various organisations (including the Fondation Maurice Favre and the Association des AmisMIH) motivate people and organisations worldwide to donate annually. A current exhibition is dedicated to bequests from the unique collections of Eduard Streit (1939-2023) and Michel Huber (1950-2023).
The Gnomon is one of the oldest instruments of time measurement. Sculpture from 2014 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Collection of ancient sundials. Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Although the ancient Egyptians may not have been able to display hours or seconds, they already understood the sun-earth-stars relationships, calendars, days, months, and years and their time measurement. Scientists in Babylon, the Persian Empire, and other Middle and Far East areas, including China, also investigated time measurement. The museum, therefore, begins with this history.
Copy of the Clepsydra from Karnak (Egypt), around 1400 BC Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
The Clepsydra from Egypt and the Gnomon (the Greeks gave the name to this Egyptian invention) are the oldest examples of time measurement. In the 14th century, the first astronomical clocks were developed. Astronomy was the most significant science for time measurement until the emergence of the mechanical clock in and at the end of the Middle Ages.
The Greeks and Romans developed the system further, and the (Roman) Julian calendar was the formal measurement of time in days, months, weeks, and years until 1582. Based on these new time measurements, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582.
However, an accurate display of hours and seconds was not yet possible. Sunrise and sunset and the seasons largely determined the daily rhythm of life until the High Middle Ages. Solar meters, water meters and hourglasses, candles, tree rings, and other tools determined the time units.
Collection of ancient sandglasses. Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Manually operated church bells were essential in daily life and monasteries in the Christian world until the High Middle Ages.
A mechanism of a medieval church bell, a vertical mechanism with gravity (weights). Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Mechanical timekeeping developed in the late 14th century and afterwards. It is no coincidence that the first mechanical clock was installed on a church tower (Salisbury Cathedral, 1386). The Zytglogge in Solothurn or Bern, among others, are secular examples in Switzerland. The astronomical clock in Prague is also world-famous.
Giovanni Dondi (1330-1388), planetarium. Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
More Crucial changes took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. Standing clocks (pendules) appeared, followed by pocket watches. They became increasingly accurate, functional, beautiful and even true works of art. The museum provides a chronological overview of the prominent inventors, applications and developments.
There was no single inventor, but rather a series of successive innovative applications and discoveries in, among others, France, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Switzerland.
Although there are too many inventors and researchers to list them individually, an exception is made for the Dutch scholar Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695).
The Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Haegsche Tijd Foundation (Stichting) are organising an exhibition in 2025 to commemorate the invention of the spiral spring in 1675
Christiaan Huygens’ system for the pendulum and the pocket watch in words and pictures. In the foreground is a 1690 pendulum clock by Pieter Visbagh (1634-1722). Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds.
His invention was small but crucial for developing time measurement equipment: the pendulum and the hairspring in the ‘Unrueh‘, the central control mechanism of a timepiece.
The mechanism of a modern church clock is a horizontal mechanism without gravity—a model of the Grand Temple. Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Because of sports competitions (initially horse racing in the 19th century), globalisation, trade, technical developments and industrialisation, the need for accurate time measurements and equipment increased steadily during the Industrial Revolution and the 20th and 21st centuries.
What is unique about the museum is not only its collection and concept. The building is underground and made of concrete, a chilly material. However, the visitor feels surrounded by a warm bath of time measurement, history, art, information, and equipment.
Several other monumental concrete buildings preceded the museum in Switzerland, including the churches in Hérémence (St. Nicolas Church, canton Valais) and Basel ( St. Antonius Church).
The architects Pierre Zoelly (1923-2003) and Georges-Jacques Haefeli (1934-2010) not only drew on the architecture of Le Corbusier (1887-1965), born and educated in La Chaux-de-Fonds but also considered the environment (le Parc des Musées) and the museum’s collection and functionality.
A current exhibition at the museum is dedicated to the creation of this complex. (For further information: N. Maillard, Le Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds, Société d’histoire de l’art en Suisse, 2024, also available in German and English).
Moreover, it is also an art museum: creativity and the styles of art from the 16th century onwards are being shown, for example, beautifully decorated 16th-century astronomical artworks, 17th-century women’s watches and men’s pocket watches, paintings, furniture and interiors, 18th-century pendulums, the first wristband watches, chronometers, stopwatches, quartz, electronic and atomic applications in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Unknown Dutch master, circa 1750, gentilhomme with pocket watch. Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
It is also a history museum. The history of time measurement keeps pace with social, international, industrial, religious and technical developments, old and new empires and their rulers.
Workshop of a watch manufacturer, early 20th century. Collection: Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Many Swiss and international personalities appear in this context. Several unique watches, (astronomical) clocks, and modern devices of time measurement receive special attention, e.g., La Merveilleuse (1878) by Ami Lecoutre (1843-1921), Abraham-Louis Breguet’s invention of the Tourbillon (1801), the Planétaire of François Ducommun (1816), and a fantastic collection of modern watches.
François Ducommun, Planétaire, 1816. Collection:Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
Various models, hundreds of objects, and documentation give insight into the functioning of a clock, watch, and other time measurement devices, from a small watch to a large church clock. Replicas of ancient workshops for production and practical applications are discussed, for example, in shipping, scientific research, daily life, business, fashion, or interiors.
The workshop for restorations at the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
The museum also hosts research, maintenance and repairs. A workshop gives visitors a glimpse into state-of-the-art techniques. The archive and library are accessible on request.
Collages on the theme of time (“La vitesse est relative, mais le temps est absolu” (Speed is relative, but time is absolute), La Chaux-de-Fonds train station
Time is also philosophical, just as the number ‘zero’ does. What is time? The Universe is about 14 billion years old, and the Earth is about 4 billion years old.
The symbolic, functional and artistic 1980 Carillon (artist: Onelio Vignando, 1914-2021) next to and above the museum in Museumpark
Only humankind has been worried about ‘time’ and time measurement for thousands of years and wants to create systems of ‘time’. However, the number of femtoseconds of the Universe’s and Earth’s existence goes beyond human comprehension.
Hans Erni (1909-2015) created three frescos for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels: La conquête du temps (The Conquest of Time), Histoire de la Mesure du temps (History of Time Measurement) and Technique de la Mesure du temps (Technique of Time Measurement). The picture shows a detail of the fresco Technique de la Mesure du temps, which depicts a modern man and the struggle with time, symbolised by an old man with an hourglass and scythe. The three frescoes are housed in the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
The museum highlights the concept, history, and implementation of time measurement over the past 5,000 years in an understandable, multilingual, and fascinating way.
(Source and further information: C. Cardinal, J.-M. Piguet, Catalogue du Musée international d’horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds,1999; M. Leonhardt, L’heure, et plus encore Montres à complications de la collection du Musée international d’horlogerie, Neuchâtel, 2018; Le Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds)
Impressions of the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds
