Hong Kong Glamour

On our way back home from our trip we had a few days in Hong Kong.

Our visits to Hong Kong are always a great chance to catch up with friends we have met through my passion for watches. Several times Vikki and I have had the great fortune to be invited to events through Swiss Prestige. On this trip we were invited to join Swiss Prestige and Hublot at the re-opening of the refurbished boutique in Central.

Dressed up and ready we hopped on the Star Ferry (our favourite mode of transport in Hong Kong) and braved the threatening rain for our journey across to Central. Luckily most of the way to the Hublot boutique is undercover so we arrived reasonably dry.

The new boutique was designed by New York architect Peter Marino, who has also designed the Paris, New York and Tokyo boutiques. The redesigned space incorporates materials such as bronze, natural buckskin or ebony, creating a luxe but still warm and tranquil space. A private room is also available for clients.

Vikki and I arrived to find a crowd of Hong Kong’s watch collectors and wealthy along with a smattering of celebrities. 

Standing chatting with Emil Klingelfuss, Chairman of Swiss Prestige, we saw someone who looked familiar but we couldn’t place where we might know him from. A subtle question and we found out it was none other than Donnie Yen from the Ip Man movies, among others. We were lucky to have a conversation with him and he seemed impressed that we had seen both Ip Man movies. Donnie came across as a really nice guy and we enjoyed our chat with him. Later in the evening we were able to get a photo with him.

There is a short video of the evening on the SWISS PRESTIGE website and yes we have brief appearances in it.

We would like to thank Emil and Jacqueline for inviting us to join Swiss Prestige and Hublot for this wonderful event.

Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château des Monts

After a great morning and lunch at Greubel Forsey, we headed off for a special afternoon of touring the Musee de L’horlogerie du Locle, Chateau des Monts with Phoebe Forsey.

Situated in the midst of rolling lawns and an English style garden the Chateau du Monts was inaugurated as the Musee d’Horlogerie Du Locle in 1959. A long history of watch making is associated with the Chateau dating back to Samuel DuBois. In the early 1900’s the Chateau was bought by Georges Ducommun the founder of DOXA. Upon his death it passed to his daughter Helene Nardin who in turn sold it the town of Le Locle.

The watch museum came about when the watch component of a curio collection was transferred to  the Watchmaking School. After being stored away during the Second World War, a group of horological enthusiasts set about reviving the Watch Museum. A permanent location became available when the town bought Chateau des Monts from Mme Nardin. Five years after the purchase and restoration, the museum welcomed its first visitors.

Since it’s inauguration the Museum has had its collection enlarged with the generous bequests of Maurice Yves Sandoz (primarily pieces from his automaton collection), Alfred Huguenin (Neuchatel clocks), Henri Jeanmarie (clocks and furniture decorated with the Boulle marquetry ) and Frederic Savoye (a collection of French and Swiss clocks).

Some of the automata found in the Maurice Yves Sandoz Room:

Examples of Boulle clocks in the Henri Jeanmarie Room:


 

Examples of Neuchatel Clocks in the Alfred Huguenin Room:

 Another permanent exhibition is The Times Of Time. This thematic exhibition, deals with the human comprehension and measurement of time. Shown in a modern setting, with separate and distinct chapters, it not only deals with the industry preoccupation of measuring time, but also with calendars and chronologies and non- mechanical methods of time telling such as hourglasses and sundials.

On temporary exhibit at the time of our visit was Automates & Merveilles au Locle :
Chefs-d’œuvre de luxe et de miniaturisation (Automata and marvels: Masterpieces of luxury and miniaturisation). A joint exhibition between Musee d'art et d'histoire de Neuchatel, Musee International d'Horlogerie La Chaux-du-Fonds and Musee D'Horlogerie Du Locle. This exhibit focused on the work of three leading figures in 18th century clockmaking: Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis and their associate Jean-Frédéric Leschot. The exhibition at Le Locle focused on the miniaturisation aspect of watchmaking and the luxurious, playful and often whimsical creations.

Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz’s Le Dessinateur (The Draughtsman) was the centre piece for the theme of miniaturization. Along with the Jaquet-Droz’s, other master clockmakers and craftspeople were featured in the exhibition revealing the relations that existed between them. The miniaturization of mechanisms allowed the clockmakers to put singing birds, music boxes or animated scenes in all sorts of objects (watches, pistol, cages, snuff boxes). They also excelled in creating android automata and small mechanical animals. Having seen the movie Hugo, Vikki and I were really excited by this exhibition.

Unfortunately photography was not allowed in this exhibit. I have included the link Automates & Merveilles for futher reading and photographs.

While the museum is primarily focused on timepieces, they have also included samples of other crafts of the region. During the winter while their husbands were working on the watches and clocks, the women folk were occupied in making lace and other textile crafts. On display are various samples of lace and the equipment used in its manufacture.

Below next to the fireplace are two examples of lace making apparatus:

Our visit of this well presented museum and its collection was a rare treat. Having Phoebe Forsey with her in depth knowledge of the collections to guide us through the museum was a wonderful highlight to our visit.

We would like to thank Stephen and Phoebe Forsey and Greubel Forsey for organising our visit to Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château des Monts.

Oz in Watch Wonderland

Very rarely does one get the opportunity to actually meet the craftsmen and women that create the watches that we buy. The large brands are increasingly shrouded behind the marketing veil of secrecy and mystique. There is more and more corporate speak about getting close to the customer, whilst in truth the era of political correctness has made this an even greater challenge.

Well in this case things are different. As soon as I got my Observatoire, I emailed Kari Voutilainen that we would like to visit as part of our global trip. He seemed more than happy for us to come and visit him and his Atelier.

The previous day was spent at Greubel Forsey so it was going to be even more interesting to freshly compare and contrast the philosophy driving both independent watch makers. Fully rested from our previous night at the Beau Rivage we were not quite as blessed by the weather gods the next day.  The 40 minute train ride up to Motiers however still managed to showcase the best country lifestyle Switzerland has to offer.

Arriving at Môtiers, we were met at the station by Kari and walked to his house a short distance from the station.

 

We passed an amazing school which reminded me of my youth growing up near Bern.

Finally, we arrive at the gates of Watch Wonderland.

This was an old doctor’s mansion that Kari converted. The Atelier portion of the building was originally a set of apartments with its own side entrance. Machining is done in the basement whilst the watch workshop is in the attic. The family lives in the middle of the house.  It is simply a stunning restoration.

The tour (which quite a few of my collector friends have also been privileged to partake in) starts in the basement. Here is Kari showing me his new milling machine from Haas.

 

This table is full of small machines for particular operations like gear tooth polishing and other finishing operations.

Kari now makes all his dials in-house, this is a rotary guillochage machine.

We also saw machines for linear guillochage.

 

It is obvious Kari has some very talented people within his team.

 

An example of one of Kari's finished dials.

 

Ever the gentleman, Kari allowed me to photograph the dials for his Masterpiece Chronographs (series is finished I asked for one more but to no avail lol).

 

Upstairs in the attic where all the true magic happens.

 

The Vingt-8 movement with direct impulse system with two escapement wheels: this system allows for better accuracy and can even do without lubrication.

An actual Vingt-8 movement in German silver. You can see the traditional Geneva stripes, perlage and anglage.

Kari’s prototype Masterpiece Chronograph amongst a couple of Vingt-8’s. I tried to convince him that I was the ideal person to keep testing the chrono for him but that trick didn’t work. He did mention some future projects which sparked my interest.

It is obvious that Kari is a rare watchmaker who can integrate mechanics and aesthetics with great panache and refinement. Always humble, his watches are understated but full of innovation and the Atelier reflects his philosophy of making everything in-house and maintaining quality by producing a maximum of 40-50 pieces per year.

After a leisurely tour through Kari’s Atelier looking at his watches and production, he took us to lunch in the local cafe/hall/beer house. Unfortunately no photos, but we had the special of the day which was Chilli con carne( I know you, go all the way to Switzerland to have chilli con carne, but it was GOOD), followed by creme brulee. Seriously good, must be all that fabulous Swiss cream and free range eggs.

Not knowing much about Môtiers, we were surprised to find it was (and still is) a town with a history of Absinthe production, apart from watch production. Kari’s facial expressions hinted  at some interesting stories and experiences with this devilish nectar. We suspect the green fairy is alive and well lol.

 

Saying good bye to Môtiers and Kari,  we headed back to Neuchâtel under clearing skies to catch our train to Zurich.

 

Masters of Precision - Greubel Forsey

As part of our global holiday we had arranged to have a visit to the manufacture of Greubel Forsey (‘GF’). Having met Stephen on several occasions we contacted him to see if we could have a tour while we were in Switzerland. In the end it ended up being more than a tour of the workshop as we were invited to lunch and a tour of Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château des Monts with our super tour guide, Phoebe Forsey.

After a two hour drive through the towns and mountains between Zurich and La Chaux-de-Fonds we pulled in to the drive way of Greubel Forsey, and who should be departing but Mr Philippe Dufour. Had I been quicker getting out of the car I would have had a chance to say, “Hello”. Stephen came down to meet us and after a quick chat, guided us up the entrance of the manufacture which is located in a restored barn. We were introduced to Chantel Graff who looks after sales and marketing at GF and then began our tour.

Also located in the restored barn is the bespoke workshop for special orders, the kitchen, the staff lunch room, amenities and a private dining room. Down a few steps and through a sealed door, you are in the heart of the manufacture.

Designed to be environmentally friendly, the modern part of the building is constructed with a double “skin” of glass which allows light and heat from the sun to be utilised to the fullest and controlled to heat and cool the building. The central atrium also floods light in to the centre of the building. The inner shell has doors that can be opened to allow air to circulate. 

The individual departments are spread over three floors, all having full natural light with minimal electrical lighting and each with a relationship to its neighbours on each floor. This allows work to flow in a logical sequence. On the top floor are the workshops where movements are assembled.

 Watching a professional do the ‘perlage’ treatment before I had a go. A ‘daylight’ lamp is used along with natural light so there is no shadow as the work is being carried out. Let’s just say that I am glad the piece I was practicing on was a sample baseplate, my inadequate attempt resulted in even greater admiration of the skilled people who carry out this amazing technical feat.

The precision achieved through the use of CNC machines and finely tuned lathes is astounding, and we had a chance to observe the production of the tiny screws that are used in the movements. Each screw takes 4 minutes to shape and be cut from a 5 metre long piece of steel.

The metal that has been cut away is caught in the liquid that is used to both lubricate and cool the metal and then collected to be recycled. Below are some of the components that come off the lathes.

Vikki’s father would have been in ‘engineers heaven’ had he been a long with us. The CNC machines are state of the art, and run continuously through the day. The CNC machines are used primarily to produce the plates, bridges and cases.

Some of the components produced from the CNC machines.

After all the parts are manufactured they go off to polishing and clean up and are then packaged into the little blue boxes, which have all the components for 1 watch, to await assembly. This enables watches to be built without having to wait for the parts to be manufactured.

Prior to lunch Stephen and Chantel showed us some of the amazing pieces that are produced by Greubel Forsey…..

The one that started it all, the Double Tourbillon 30 Degrees......

My favourite is the Double Tourbillon 30 Degrees Technique......

A breathtaking Quadruple Tourbillion......

The GMT......

Tourbillon 24 secondes Contemporain......

A wonderful selection to choose from......

After such a wonderful showing we were joined by Stephen’s wife Phoebe for lunch. Greubel Forsey have a chef on staff who prepares staff meals as well as catering for guests of the company. We were treated to a delightful 3 course lunch with some wonderful Swiss wines from a local winery Caves de Chambleau.

We would like to thank Stephen, Chantel and Phoebe for their hospitality during our visit and for taking time out of their busy day to show us around the atelier. We would also like to thank the staff of Greubel Forsey for allowing us to peek over their shoulders while they were working.