M O D E R N Ulysse Nardin’s Locle & Geneve Chronometre
A pocket watch from the Swiss brand, Vacheron Constantin
Jaquet Droz Numerus Clausus N° 8/88
Exceptional craftsmanship, understated elegance & past treasure – the pocket watch has found its place in the contemporary times and how. Girard Perregaux Tourbillon with three gold Bridges
Time travel
Old times, glorious future
N
words meghna sharma
16
ot very long ago, carrying a pocket watch would
pieces - Grand Complication No. 42500 - that
have made you look like a time traveller from a
had left the A. Lange & Söhne manufactory
different century, or worse, someone caught in
was brought back in a pitiful state. Jan Sliva,
a Hollywood character of the era gone by. Talk
in-house head, Lange pocket watches and the
today, and you’d notice that the pocket watch
man who restored the precious junk, says, “We
has achieved the status of a beautiful and icon-
looked at it as a chance to preserve the ingenu-
ic object in its own right. But how did this as-
ity of our fathers and forefathers for the coming
toundingly modern twist occur ? “Refurbishing
generations. It took us nine years to restore it.”
the best from each era and consistently captur-
Believe it or not but the horologists across the
ing the latest trends is one of our biggest re-
world have dedicated themselves to the work of
sponsibilities,” express the master watchmak-
saving and reviving the best for the posterity.
ers of the world. So, whether the loved treasure
In a small workshop nestled under the roof of
is nestling in your pocket or hanging around
the Audemars Piguet Museum, in Le Brassus,
the neck, it is now a symbol of your ideology of
Switzerland, Jean-Charles Bratschi makes old-
looking at time differently rather than simply
fashioned pocket watches. It takes him almost
wearing it on the wrist.
a year to build these exceptional timepieces.
In 2001, nearly 100 years after it was created,
Alone in his workshop, a glass-walled room
one of the rarest and most significant time-
on the top floor of the Museum, Bratschi
Audemars Piguet’s pocket watches are a symbol of elegance
Breguet’s Grand Strike pocket watch with Tourbillon 17