Michèle Brunner

Doing things well takes no more time and no more effort than doing them badly. This is what motivates me, because the result is also good for the ego.

I was born in a town at the foot of the Swiss Jura, the mountains that were the cradle of the Swiss watchmaking industry and which are still the home of some of the most prestigious Swiss watch brands. I have been close to the world of watchmaking since I was a child, as my mother worked in one of the numerous workshops that flourished in the region before the quartz crisis and employed ladies at home as well as on site. I must admit, however, that I never even considered the watch industry for my career. Nevertheless, it was useful to work in the workshop for a couple of months (but certainly no more than that) during my studies in order to pay for my holidays abroad.

I was interested in languages, literature and the arts and, after graduating with a degree in literature and education, I taught for two years before joining the "new media" department of a daily newspaper in Geneva that is no longer in circulation. The worldwide web was in its infancy, with a local outlook and a limited audience, but I liked the combination of writing and the technical side of this electronic and innovative medium.

After working for another daily newspaper in Geneva, still in the Internet department, I was offered the opportunity to change fields and leave the world of global news for that of watchmaking. The subject changed, but not the medium, and WorldTempus was growing, in its offices in the heart of the city of Calvin, another bastion of Swiss watchmaking. Watchmaking had caught me up, in some sense, and when I look at some of the beautiful timepieces I am fortunate to see with my work, I often think of those whose hands make them and who I worked with in the past for a few months.

Doing things well takes no more time and no more effort than doing them badly. This is what motivates me, because the result is also good for the ego.

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo,
The World according to Garp, by John Irving
Marie-Antoinette, by Stefan Zweig
The Tomb of Tutankhamun, by Howard Carter
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
The Scapegoat, by Daniel Pennac
The Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargas
… and many more, starting with the Famous Five, by Enid Blyton, which got me hooked on reading when I was ten.