Beyond Belief

Is the march of technological advancements harmful to traditional watchmaking, or does it open up a world of possibilities?

This is a question that’s gone unanswered since the beginning of time, or of timepieces anyway. The Germans are generally regarded as having first made clocks small enough to be portable in the early 16th century. Around the same time, Protestant Huguenots fleeing persecution from French Catholics brought their artistic savoir-faire to neighbouring Switzerland, where they gradually transformed Geneva into the epicentre of haute horlogerie.

They collaborated with local farmers from the surrounding mountains, who spent harsh winters penniless and stuck indoors for months on end.