The Society arranges a number of study tours for members, usually of a week's duration, at least once a year.
The next tour is arranged for September 2009 to Vienna and Budapest. Booking for this trip has now closed.
Germany is a possible destination for 2010.
October 2008 to Switzerland.
On Thursday 9 October 2008, twenty-seven members, travelling from various parts of Europe, met up at Geneva Airport and travelled by coach to the Hotel de la Rose in the heart of the medieval city of Fribourg, which was to be our base for the next six nights. Prior to dinner that evening Antoine Simonin, a well-known expert in the Swiss Watch Industry, gave us a talk on the history of Swiss watchmaking.
Early on Friday morning we set off by coach for Geneva to visit the Museum of Art and History. Antoine Simonin had stayed in Fribourg overnight as he had arranged for us to visit the temporary exhibition 'Ten Swiss Watch-Making Schools: Masterpieces of Expertise'. He kindly accompanied us but also provided us with a personal guided tour and detailed explanations of the exhibits. These were arranged with a showcase for each school and the pieces ranged from simple timepieces up to tourbillon, chronograph and repeating watches.
After lunch, a visit was made to the magnificent Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, where we saw important collections of horology - watches, musical automata and portrait miniatures together with enamelling of Genevan, Swiss and European origins from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Among the many fabulous items, the ornamental pistol with singing bird and watch by Rochat drew much admiration from the group. It was particularly well displayed with an animation by John Redfern showing the mechanism in action. We were particularly amazed by the complicated watches. The Graves watch with its twenty-four complications prepared us to examine the Calibre 89; the world's most complicated watch, with thirty-three complications. It was displayed in a showcase with the sub assemblies arranged around the slowly rotating watch.
On Saturday 11 October, a visit was made to the horological museum, Musee International d'Horlogerie at La Chaux-de-Fonds. This museum contains examples of all forms of clock and watch making and therefore must be visited on any horological tour of Switzerland.
In the afternoon we travelled to the nearby town of Le Locle to visit the Musee d'Horlogerie du Locle, housed in the eighteenth century Chateau des Monts, with a large collection of clocks, watches and automata. Many of the exhibits have been manufactured in the surrounding area.
On Sunday 12 October, a visit was made in the morning to the Gewerbemuseum in Winterthur. We were warmly welcomed by the Curator, Brigitte Vinzens who had kindly invited us. She was most enthusiastic showing us around the museum and her very well equipped restoration workshop. Highlights of the collection were the sixteenth and seventeenth century iron clocks by the Liechti family. Also of note was a Hipp 1 -second pendulum precision regulator.
After lunch we travelled to Basel to visit the Haus zum Kirschgarten, a lifestyle museum with an internationally famous collection of clocks and watches. We met with John Joseph who provided us with an excellent tour. He was extremely informative in explaining the finer points of the collection. The highlight of this visit was seeing the Huber-Mudge prototype chronometer.
On Monday 13 October, we went into Neuchatel to the art and history museum for a private demonstration of the incredible Jacquet Droz automatons of the Scribe, the Draftsman and the Musician. This comprehensive demonstration was given by one of the craftsmen who maintain these wonderful automata on a regular basis. Demonstrations can be arranged on request for groups of five persons. Antoine Simonin kindly accompanied us again and provided us with a full translation.
After lunch Mr Simonin accompanied us to Villers Le Lac, just inside France, to visit the Musee de La Montre. We were welcomed by M. Yves Droz and given a guided tour. Here we saw machinery for the manufacture of the cylinder escapement displayed in sequence so that all the stages in making both cylinders and escape wheels were shown.
On Tuesday 14 October, we travelled to Le Sentier, in the beautiful Vallee de Joux, the home of horological complications. The group was divided into two, one group visiting Jaeger-LeCoultre watch manufacturer in the morning and the Audemars Piguet Museum in the afternoon.
We were welcomed at Jaeger-LeCoultre by our guide Sebastian Vivas who gave us a conducted tour of the museum. The museum today is housed in the 'Grande Maison' Antoine LeCoultre founded in 1833. The new museum which is on two floors has a stunning display of hundreds of different watch movements displayed in showcases hanging one above the other between two glass plates. Among the exhibits are watches from the early production years up to the present day to illustrate the development of the company. One highlight was a triple tourbillon watch in current production.
The two groups met up for lunch in a restaurant overlooking the beautiful Lac de Joux and then exchanged venues.
At the Audemars Piguet Museum, we were given a warm welcome and guided tour by Mr Martin Wehrli. He treated us to a very a comprehensive tour of the museum. Again a wide range of past and present production was beautifully displayed - repeaters for instance having a recording of the chime played by pushing a button near the watch. The workers work flexitime and we were, therefore, allowed to enter the workshop where the grand complication watches are assembled and see the work in progress. We were told it takes one man a whole year to assemble and finish one of these very complicated watches.
Wednesday 15 October was sadly our last day, with the morning free to explore the lovely medieval town of Fribourg before departing for Geneva Airport for our various flights home.