Beyond the Atelier

by Michael Clerizo

Watchmakers are not baseball players who generate neat tables of easily judged statistics. Yet when I asked that question of eleven great watchmakers as part of the research for my book Masters of Contemporary Watchmaking, the answers were swift and direct. Their minds were made up long before I inquired. More on this later. When talking with watchmakers for hours and sometimes days, I heard them discuss watchmaking, marketing, teaching and many other topics beyond strictly watchmaking. Below are a few excerpts from my inquiries.

Where to sell
Franck Muller, among the most financially successful independent watchmakers, offered business advice. “In this world if you have success in two countries you will have success in all the world. These two countries are Italy and Japan.” Because Italy is a country marinated in the history of Western art, Muller believes Italians develop an innate sense of design and a ready appreciation for artistic technique. Trust their judgment, he says, because if the Italians like and buy your products, much of the rest of the world will follow. “If you have Italy you will also take all of Europe and America.” Japan, argues Muller, plays a similar role in Asia. Remembering his initial meetings with Japanese customers, he says, “The Japanese are so precise, so critical they will sit and look at the watch for three hours. If the watch has a defect, they find the defect. But if you pass this test with the Japanese you have all of Asia because all of Asia respects the Japanese mind.” Svend Andersen, (with whom Muller once worked restoring many of the watches in the Patek Philippe museum) has a slightly different take on nationalities and watches. Befitting a man who has kept to one atelier and a few assistants in Geneva since the early 1980s and who enjoys meeting his customers, Andersen’s observations are more personal. “Italians want a watch that gives them pleasure to wear. When I started, that watch had to be something unique, and that was more important than the price. The Japanese stare at a watch for hours and when they look, their faces do not express if they are happy or not. With Americans, their first question is how much, always. Americans want value for money, they want to know what they are getting for their money.” Since the mid-90s Andersen has acquired customers in China. “The Chinese are very concerned about lucky and unlucky numbers. They don’t like the number four and eight is their lucky number. That is why the Olympics in China started on the eighth of August, the eighth month in 2008, at eight o’clock in the morning. When I do a numbered series I must think about which number I present to them.”

Hiring and teaching
One watchmaker who has achieved renown in the demanding Japanese market is the Vallée de Joux-based Philippe Dufour. The man and his work were featured in a two-hour Japanese documentary about Swiss watchmaking. His Simplicity watch is available in a 34-mm model, which is anatomically sympathetic on smaller Japanese wrists. Of the two hundred Simplicitys he will produce, one hundred and five are destined for Japan. These days his thoughts about the land of the rising sun are not so much about customers as about potential assistants.“Almost every month I get a letter from someone in Japan asking to come and work with me. I would love to say yes but I cannot. If I have a job for someone, I must first advertise it in Switzerland and then in all of Europe. Only if no one applies can I give the job to someone from Japan.” Dufour has also received requests for jobs from China and India. “In Asia people respect craft and history more than we do here in Europe or in America. They are interested in learning the old ways of doing things, but if I want to show them how to do a nice finish or nice beveling I must go there to teach. Maybe someday I will. I would like that.” Teaching students greatly also interests Antoine Preziuso (featured in the same Japanese documentary). At his atelier outside Geneva he frequently oversees the workbench education of students from Swiss watchmaking schools. “I like teaching. It is a way to carry on the traditions of watchmaking. When students come to me I want to be sure that they are passionate about watchmaking. I show them beautiful watches, beautiful dials, beautiful clocks, beautiful tools, all from my own collection. This is the first contact. Then I start teaching the basics. “I check if their hands are clean, how they sit at the bench, how they lay out their tools. Then, I give them a movement that needs to be restored to see if they can find the problem. I ask a few questions to see if they know what to do. “From the answers I can see if this person is a good watchmaker and if he knows which direction he has to take. I like doing everything through exchange and discussion.