There are books you read, and books you consult standing up, on a workshop table or a library desk. Dix écoles d'horlogerie suisses — Chefs-d'œuvre de savoir-faire, edited by Estelle Fallet and Antoine Simonin (Éditions Antoine Simonin, 2010), belongs to the second category: its 568 pages and 4 kilos literally make it a bible — and that is indeed what the watchmaking community quickly nicknamed it, finally welcoming a reference work sorely missing since the 1950s.
An editorial undertaking of extraordinary scale
Antoine Simonin, historic publisher and former director of WOSTEP, had carried this project close to his heart for ten years. It took more than four years of work (instead of the two originally planned), five permanent staff and nearly seventy contributors — historians, museum curators, schools, archivists — to complete the book. Estelle Fallet, curator at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva and a recognised specialist in watchmaking history, provided its scientific direction. The book extends two major exhibitions: that of the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva (2008) and that of the Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu in Porrentruy (2009).
The result: more than 1,400 colour photographs on coated paper, thread-sewn binding under a laminated hardcover, and iconography that has become authoritative — calibres, school-made watches, bench drawings, technical diagrams, tools, portraits of students and masters.
Ten schools, ten territories, one shared mission
The book is structured in ten chapters, one per institution, each tracing the history of a school founded in the mid-19th century and illustrating, through a genuine catalogue, the calibres, watches, drawings and tools produced there. The ten schools covered map out the full geography of Swiss watchmaking training:
- Geneva — the oldest, born of the cabinotier tradition.
- The Vallée de Joux — the Le Sentier school, shaped in contact with the great manufactures.
- Fleurier, Le Locle, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchâtel — the heart of the watchmaking canton, each with its own pedagogical personality.
- Saint-Imier, Biel, Solothurn — the Jura arc and its opening towards industry.
- Porrentruy — the Jura school, for a long time the northernmost of all.
Each school responded in its own way to the same requirement: to train complete watchmakers — capable of understanding an entire calibre, turning a part, drafting a plan, adjusting an escapement — at the very moment when industry was shifting towards the division of labour. This tension between artisanal versatility and industrial specialisation runs through the whole book.
The school-made watch, a unique historical object
The book's connecting thread is the school-made watches: pieces made by students at the end of their training, often after two to four years, serving simultaneously as a final examination, a demonstration of skill, and a museum witness. Each school-made watch tells, through its proportions, its decoration, its escapement, its complications, a precise state of the teaching at a given moment.
Fallet shows magnificently how these objects constitute a first-rate historical source: through them, one reads the gradual adaptation of the schools to industrial demands, the emergence of new technologies (escapements, Nivarox hairsprings, chronographs, complications), and the evolution of the watchmaker's own gesture. It is a history of Swiss watchmaking told through its schools — an original angle never before treated with this scope.
A reference work, not a bedside book
Simonin himself puts it with humour: “Clearly, this book is a reference, but it can hardly be read in bed. At 4 kg, that would be rather uncomfortable!” Dix écoles d'horlogerie suisses is consulted like a reasoned dictionary: you open it to find the history of a particular school, identify a school calibre, understand a tool, or place a master within his lineage. It is the work that every trainer, every watchmaking school student, every historian and every serious collector should have within reach.
It thoroughly renews the French-language bibliography, whose most recent references date from the 1950s, and has become authoritative among museums, schools (CFC/CAP) and manufactures alike.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I buy Dix écoles d'horlogerie suisses?
The book is published by Éditions Antoine Simonin (Neuchâtel), who handle direct distribution. It is also available from specialist watchmaking booksellers (Watchprint, MisterChrono) and in some Swiss watchmaking museum bookshops. Single edition in French, 2010.
Who is this book for?
Trainers, current and former students of watchmaking schools (CFC, CAP, WOSTEP), industry historians, museum curators, collectors of school-made watches, and any well-informed enthusiast who wants to understand how Swiss watchmaking know-how was transmitted over 150 years. The level is demanding, but the abundant iconography makes the book accessible to a passionate non-specialist reader.
Which are the ten schools covered?
Geneva, the Vallée de Joux (Le Sentier), Fleurier, Le Locle, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchâtel, Saint-Imier, Biel, Solothurn and Porrentruy. Each school has a full chapter tracing its history and presenting a catalogue of its educational output (calibres, school-made watches, drawings, tools).
If enrolling in Geneva or Le Locle is out of reach, the modern alternative is set out in how to learn watchmaking online, with a beginner entry point in watchmaking for beginners.
Want to extend the reading into practice? The Décalibre curriculum is a direct heir to these ten schools: the same gestures, the same demand for understanding the whole calibre, but in high-definition macro video format — for those who could not enrol in Geneva, Le Locle or Le Sentier.