THE DIAL

Le Cadran

C adran jauni sur un vieux mur

A ux rayons du soleil tu fixes l’heure

D éjà les rois vêtus de bure

R egardaient sur ta face le temps qui meurt

A ujourd’hui les hommes de ce temps

N e peuvent se passer de toi

S tern frères depuis déjà longtemps

S ’ingénie à t’embellir et te polir

T u es choyé comme il se doit

E ntre les mains des ouvriers

R egardons maintenant vers l’avenir, N oël est si vite passé

Georges Renand Diabolo

Birth of a dynasty

The fascinating story of the Stern dial company takes us deep into Swiss watchmaking territory and merges with that of the country's centuries-old watch industry. The family business was founded in Geneva in 1898 and survived until the month of June 2016 when it drew its last breath. Surprisingly, its last official mention in the state council registers went virtually unnoticed. Ignored even by the watchmaking press, it nevertheless signalled the demise of a prestigious name inextricably linked to an era of tremendous expertise.

Sadly, it also signalled a slow and gradual decline in traditional dial craftsmanship skills: a treasure-chest of knowledge synonymous with a name that had captured minds and hearts everywhere. To this day, there is not one collector who fails to refer to Stern, whether in New York or London, Moscow or Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo or anywhere else. The name remains intimately entwined with the world's most iconic watches. Stern was the go-to maker of dials for the likes of Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, and many other great watchmaking houses, including, of course, Patek Philippe.

Beyond the prestige behind the name, the history of the Stern dynasty is, above all, a touchingly human story, one that unfolds as a series of personal ups and downs mirroring the developments in the global economy. Yet it is a story full of deeply human experiences, a mixture of tragedy and existential weakness, a story of courage and sheer will of character. No one, thus far, has attempted to articulate in such detail, or to such a documented extent, the intensely rich history of the Stern dial-making dynasty.

The luxury business, it will come as no surprise, has always been highly permeable to the influences of the general economic climate. An example that springs to mind dates from the late 19 th century when a huge number of pocket watches were manufactured in Switzerland for the Chinese and Turkish markets; the collapse of those markets took a heavy toll on the Swiss economy. Given the regular crises to which the luxury sector, and therefore high-end watchmaking, is susceptible, history often ends up repeating itself. In that sense, the luxury industry is like a boat sailing the high seas without a sail: the ship must constantly adapt to the whims of the waves, the turbulence of current events shaped by war and peace, tortured markets, fluctuating interest and currency rates, and so on. Some tides will bring the boat to shore, others will set it further adrift.

I'd nonetheless like to stress the fact that the dial manufacturing industry is so much more exposed to these trends and tribulations than the watchmaking industry itself. Literally, the initial face of the timekeeper, the dial is, in reality, a reflection of an era and its ever-evolving aesthetic and technological trends. So, if current dial preferences tend towards metal, rather than enamel, the company manufacturing the dials will inevitably need to adapt. Likewise, every era will have its own colour palette, size or finish preferences, or favourite materials, thus compelling the manufacturer to navigate the twists and turns of taste to survive the journey: or, to continue the climate metaphor, weather the economic squalls, showers and storms in order to reach the shores of success. Such was the entrepreneurial journey of a dynasty inextricably linked to the history of its country, the global watch industry and, above all, the manufacture of the most accomplished watch dials in the world.