SWISS PAGES (10)

A DESIRE TO CONQUER ETERNITY

EVELINA RIOUKHINA, UNECE

Quality label
As with other Swiss products (such as chocolate), Switzerland jealously protects the “Swiss made” label, and has signed bilateral and international agreements to enable it to take legal action against counterfeiters. To obtain the label a watch must meet certain minimum conditions. Although some foreign-made components may be used, they may not account for more than 50% of the total value of the components and the watches must also be both assembled and inspected in Switzerland. With respect to watches manufactured abroad but containing Swiss components, the origin must be clearly stated, and it is strictly forbidden to exaggerate the degree of Swiss involvement. A watch may also be allowed to carry the word Geneva if it conforms to the demands made for a Swiss watch and if at least one of the major operations in its manufacture was carried out in the canton of Geneva. More prestigious than this is the award of the quality hallmark known as the “poinçon de Genève” or Geneva Seal, issued by the Office for Optional Inspection of Geneva Watches. They must have been made in the canton, and each movement must be numbered. There are 12 strict criteria to be met ensuring the highest standards in engineering, finishing and assembly.

Back to history
As was briefly mentioned in the previous article, clock and watch-making first appeared in Geneva in the middle of the 16th century. In 1541, reforms implemented by Jean Calvin, including a ban on wearing jewels, forced the goldsmiths and other jewelers to turn to a new, independent craft: watch-making. Furthermore, Calvin himself was a stickler for timekeeping and in 1541 issued an edict imposing fines on anyone who turned up late for church – or left early. In 1561 clocks were installed at a number of strategic points in the city, so that no-one should have an excuse for not being punctual. By the end of the century, Geneva watches were already reputed for their high quality, and watchmakers created in 1601 the Watchmakers’ Guild of Geneva. Watch-making there received a further boost in 1685, when Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, thereby severely restricting the freedom of French Protestants. Thousands of them left the country, and many settled in the nearby Protestant stronghold of Geneva, bringing their skills with them, including watch and clock making – a craft which was just entering a new stage of development. Among the watch-making families of Geneva were the great-grandfather, grandfather and father of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who were descended from French Protestant refugees.

In the Watch Valley
From Geneva watch-making spread north and east. The Swiss watch-making industry is concentrated in western Switzerland, in the arc formed by the Jura mountains which stretch from Geneva in the south to Basel in the north, an area which the tourism authorities have named Watch Valley. The first watch-making workshop was established in the Vallée de Joux in 1740. This area, situated at about 1000 meters above sea level, was largely cut off from the rest of the world in the winter time, and watch-making provided a source of income to farmers when there was little or nothing to do in the fields. Chaux-de-Fonds and Locle, along with Geneva, became principal centers of the Swiss watch-manufacturing industry from the 17th century and have remained so until today (a special article will be devoted to these two towns which are candidates, submitted by the Swiss Government, for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage sites).

Fairs
Switzerland hosts two major international exhibitions every spring where its watchmaking skills are on display. The World Watch and Jewellery Show is organized in Basel and the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) takes place in Geneva. The Basel exhibition is open to the public, whereas the SIHH, being a more exclusive event, is open to professionals and selected guests only. Despite the relatively small number of visitors, this show is regarded as one of the major events of its kind in Geneva (second only to the Motor Show). Customers are shown the latest innovations in top-of-the-range watches, as well as limited edition and unique timepieces. The Salon is usually organized by the Swiss Haute Horlogerie which counts among its members companies that originated in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as A. Lange & Söhne, (since 1845), Audemas Piquet (since 1875), Baume & Mercier (since 1830), Blancpain (since 1735), Breguet (since 1775), Cartier (since 1847), Girard-Perregaux (since 1775), Glashütte Original (since 1845), IWC (since 1868), Jaeger-LeCoultre (since 1833), Patek Philippe (since 1839), Omega (since 1848), Panerai (since 1860), Vacheron Constantin (since 1775). Other “younger” brands, born early in the 20th century, include Van Cleef & Arpels (since 1906), Rolex (since 1905) or Harry Winston (since 1920); and others of more recent vintage, such as Antoine Preziuso (since 1980), F.P Journe Invenit et Fecit (since 1999), Parmigiane Fleurier (since 1996), Piaget (since 1974), Roger Dubuis (since 1995), Urwerk (since 1997), Vincent Calabrese (since 1978). A 21st century newcomer is Richard Mille (since 2001). Other companies propose interesting models, but are not members of the Swiss Haute Horlogerie.

The Renaissance of the mechanical wristwatch
At the beginning of the 21st century, a marvelous ‘anomaly’ continues to be found on the wrists of the world’s elite: the mechanical watch. It is a technology that some say is out-of-date, a costly, complicated technology that requires maintenance and upkeep. And yet...Today one can witness a boom in luxury mechanical watch-making. This second generation of mechanical wristwatches has led to developments that nobody (had) expected. Complications that were formerly only to be found in pocket watches are now built into wristwatches. In the 180 years between 1801 and 1980, only 650 pocket watches with a tourbillion were made worldwide. Today, one can see complicated wristwatches that nobody would have dreamt of in the 1960s: IWC’s “Grande Complication” and “Destriero Scafusiae,” Blancpain’s “1735” and Patek Philippe’s “Sky Moon Tourbillon” to name just a few of these ultimate time pieces. The Patek Philippe’s “Calibre-89” was considered until now to be the most complicated watch in the world. It is made of 1728 details and has 33 functions including a map of the night sky above Geneva and a thermometer. It took 9 years to make (10 times longer than a standard “expensive” watch).

Innovations in design – a racing car on the wrist?
In recent years, mechanical innovation has gone hand in hand with some fascinating changes in design. The idea of combining the concepts of high speed and measured time is not new. The long-existing marriage between Bentley and the “Breitling” watch, the racing car-shape of Audemars Piquet’s “La Millenary Maseratti” ”, or the gorgeous Mercedes SLR McLaren, literally “inserted” into the chronograph SLR of Tag Heuer, are some choice examples of this trend .

Watches of the 22nd century – how will they look?
What will the watches of the 22nd century look like – racing cars, fighter combat aircraft, submarines, satellites? Or, on the contrary, supra-ancient symbols, supra-classical models? Perhaps a hybrid of them all? What appeal to me are the models of Richard Mille (chronographe tourbillon “RMOOS8-V2” and “RMOOS8-V2” and the model “Calibre RM 012, and Calibre RM 014 Perini Navi Cup Seven Seas Racing class). They definitely belong to the future. I also like URWERK 193 and 201 for their very unusual design and futuristic forms, I find the design of Rodolphe Cattin an interesting blend of ultra-modernism and classicism.

A fly in the ointment
Luxury watch-making is sophisticated, exclusive, innovative and full of ideas, many of them brilliant, but not all. An idea by a young designer from Geneva to use steel from the Titanic for the body of a series of wristwatches called “Titanic DNA” can be arguable, despite some flowery media reaction. The design of that wristwatch is undoubtedly interesting, inspired and not lacking in talent. But did the designer mean to pay tribute to an historical event? Did he create this watch to commemorate a tragic loss of human lives? Did he mean to use this idea as well as the commercial effect for humanitarian purposes? (Incidentally, each one of those watches cost more than one hundred thousand Swiss francs!). If, at one of the future watch shows, someone presents “an exclusive high-tech blend” of watch using the steel from Swissair’s tragically crashed MD 11 – flight SR111, calling it “SR 111 DNA”, for another several hundred thousand Swiss francs each, how ethical would we find it to be? To what extent can a disastrous event be used, if at all, for commercial purposes? (This issue was already raised in UNS 649, 2006).

“It is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous” (Napoleon Bonaparte)
One day in spring, when Geneva was overloaded with beautiful posters for the Watch Salon and other watch shows, a poster near the Mont-Blanc Bridge captured my eye. It showed an immense wristwatch, a moon, lots of figures and numbers and the word “Aeternitas”, a mysterious caption below the word “immortal”. I would probably not have reacted so much if the watch shown on the poster had dated back to the 18th or 19th centuries (like some of those listed above). The fact that such an “eternal” or “immortal” watch is newly invented (if really it is eternal, who knows?) deserves admiration. However, to declare on a huge poster in the centre of the world’s capital of luxury watches that the watch (created in 2006 and barely 2 years old) will last to eternity is courageous and contradictory at the same time. This is the more so as its creator is relatively young and the brand not several centuries, but a mere 15 to 16 years, old. There was in this publicity just a tiny bit “too much”, an exaggeration that brought the whole image in my mind to the brink of Napoleon’s “sublime” and “ridiculous”. I might be totally wrong and all my apologies if I am wrong. Suffice it to quote the publicity:

“A perpetual calendar indicates the day, the date, the month and the moon phases. It takes into account the length of each month and doesn’t require any manual intervention. This mechanism also takes into account the leap years, but it needs to be adjusted three times in a row every 100 years. According to the Gregorian calendar, every 400 years the leap year is cancelled for three centuries in a row and is re-established in the fourth century. For instance, in 2100, 2200, 2300 and so on, the leap year is omitted whereas in 2000, 2400, 2800 and so on, it is re-established.
The eternal calendar follows a cycle of 1,000 years thanks to two additional sets of wheels:

“The first set of wheels, comprising a wheel of 10 years, a wheel of 100 years and a wheel of 1,000 years, allows for the display of a cycle of 1,000 years.

The second set of wheels was designed for the setting, through the use of cams, of the skipping of the leap years three times in a row every 100 years and its re-establishment the fourth time.

“Between the tourbillon and the center of the dial, the years from 0 to 999 are displayed in an aperture and the cycle can go on indefinitely.
On the dial, the moon phases are displayed with the utmost precision. The error is of only 6.8 seconds per lunar month equal to one day every 1000 years, whereas in a traditional system the error is one day every four years”...

Really breathtaking! I sincerely wish this wristwatch (incidentally costing a fortune,, literally, more than a million and even several million Swiss francs, for a single piece, depending on the model!) eternal success and that time shall provide the proof of its eternity and immortality. It is not difficult to understand this desire to conquer eternity. Perhaps the same desire will inspire the potential buyer to pay these millions and own this immortal watch, which, as stated in the publicity, will lose only 6,8 seconds... by 3007 (!). I might be really wrong, but it will all be clear by then...

The real values of the AETERNITAS
The contradiction of the image provoked questions in my mind. An Eternal watch – is it really so important, is it really worth such talent and genius? (to say nothing of who will check in a thousand years?) Maybe there are more important values that should be eternal and live forever? I immediately thought of the rotating (similar to the mechanism in a watch) mechanism in our Celestial Sphere, here in the grounds of the Palais, which became an emblem of Geneva, marking it as the capital of dialogue and peace. What a pity that this eternal symbol of universal peace, located in the world centre of the luxury watch-making industry, among the most sophisticated and complex of time-keeping apparatus, should stand idle for years and years, bereft of motion.

The Celestial Sphere was offered to the League of Nations by the American artist Paul Manship. It was intended to rotate eternally, as a global, universal watch for peace. It broke down more than 50 years ago and was never repaired. As a sincere believer in the ideals of the UN, the most desirable of which is peace, I dream to see the Celestial Sphere, restored to working order so that its message of peace may endure for ever (see details in UNS 652, June 2006).

That day, looking at the poster of the luxurious wristwatch Aeternitas, an allegory came to my mind. I saw our Celestial Sphere rotating eternally, thus celebrating the immortality of the most precious gift with which our planet might be endowed – PAX UNIVERSALIS. All of a sudden both images came together in the poster: our Celestial Sphere began to live and rotate, and continued to live eternally: the PAX UNIVERSALIS AETERNAQUE. Was it only a vision, a dream? And will this my dream come true one day?

(Written 27 April 2007)