Press release
The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie is presenting "Fine Watches for Land, Air and Sea" at the Belles Montres International Prestige Watch Fair. This exhibition shows how timepieces have adapted their functions to the different situations in which they are used.
On land, portable sundials and, later, the first watches accompanied travellers on their way. However, these early watches lacked the precision needed to offer a reliable measurement of time.
Major inventions ensued. Calculating the longitude of a ship at sea by means of an accurate timepiece was a matter for watchmakers before becoming a matter of state. Huygens, considered the father of precision timekeeping, made the first inroads. The problem was finally solved by French and English master horologists in the eighteenth century. Their discoveries would ensure the economic supremacy of the century's great seafaring nations. The watch rose to prominence with the railroad in the nineteenth century. Most importantly, the railway led to the introduction of universal time, after the world had been divided into twenty-four time zones.
In the twentieth century, the airplane adapted watchmaking's previous contributions to maritime transport until high speeds meant that time could no longer be measured by mechanical means, but by other forms of technology.
The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie pays tribute to this long tradition and is staging, in Paris, "Fine Watches for Land, Air and Sea." This exhibition brings together more than 80 wristwatches and pocket watches from the earliest models to today. They have been loaned from the collections of the Foundation's partner-brands, and from the collections of the Musée International d'Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Musée de l'Horlogerie et de l'Émaillerie (one of the Genevan Musées d'Art et d'Histoire), the Musée d'Horlogerie at Château-des-Monts in Le Locle, and the Musée d'Horlogerie Beyer in Zurich.
Joining these historic pieces are some twenty contemporary watches by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie's partners.
Curated by Dominique Fléchon, an expert in the history of time measurement with the FHH, the exhibition will open visitors' eyes to the important role which Fine Watchmaking has played in the expansion of travel.
The Foundation's partners are: A. Lange & Söhne, Antoine Preziuso, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Boucheron, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, Corum, Daniel Roth, Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, Gérald Genta, Greubel Forsey, Girard-Perregaux, Hermès, Hublot, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, JeanRichard, Montblanc, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève - Musée d'Horlogerie Beyer, Zurich - Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château-des-Monts - Musée International d'Horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Richard Mille, Montblanc, Panerai, Parmigiani, Perrelet, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zénith.
Fine Watches for Land, Air and Sea
An illustrated catalogue in French and English accompanies the exhibition
Information: +41 22 307 09 90
Belles Montres – International Prestige Watch Fair
November 27th-29th, 2009 - Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
10am – 7pm – Admission: €10
www.bellesmontres.fr
