Watchtime Talks to the Famously Brainy Ludwig Oechslin: Professor, Historian, Mathematician, Philosopher and — Oh, Yes — Watchmaker

Meeting Mr. Wizard BY NORMA BUCHANAN WatchTime talks to the famously brainy Ludwig Oechslin: professor, historian, mathematician, philosopher and — oh, yes — watchmaker. Photo: Bea Weinmann 110 WatchTime August 2011 PROFILE Ludwig Oechslin told him it is possible, but it is and the Tellurium Johannes Kepler; the nearly everything, and, after weighing its stupid.” Ludwig Oechslin laughs GMT ±, in 1994, a dual-time watch that charms against those of goldsmithing, when he remembers the answer can be set forward or backward; the Per- chose horology because it was intellectu- he gave nearly 30 years ago to petual Ludwig (named after him), a per- ally richer. Rolf Schnyder when Schnyder petual calendar which, like the GMT ±, And so, at age 24, he went searching asked if it were possible to can be adjusted forward or backward, in for a teacher. He asked advice at one of “Iminiaturize a highly complicated astro- 1996; the GMT ± Perpetual, in 1999; and his old haunts: the MIH, which he had of- nomical wall clock Oechslin had made so the Freak, in 2001, which tells the time ten visited while doing research for his that it could be worn on the wrist. Why, not by hands but by means of its move- work at the university. The museum rec- Oechslin wondered, would anyone want ment, rotating once per hour, and featur- ommended he apply to become an ap- to cram all those indications, which in- ing a dual, silicon escapement of Oechs- prentice with Spöring, who worked in cluded the apparent position of celestial lin’s design. Lucerne, where Oechslin had grown up. bodies, solar time, sunrise and sunset By the time the Freak came out, Spöring took him on, and Oechslin The watches in the times, zodiac signs, solar and lunar Oechslin was well-established as one of soon found himself in Rome, helping to Trilogy of Time (top to bottom): the Astrolabi- eclipses and more, into the tiny space of a the world’s most famous watchmakers. restore an astronomical clock called the um Galileo Galilei, the wristwatch dial? That year, he took the job he holds to- Farnese clock, owned by the Vatican. The Planetarium Copernicus But Schnyder insisted. He had just day: curator and director of the Interna- project took four years and provided in- and the Tellurium bought the financially moribund Ulysse tional Museum of Horology (MIH) in spiration for the wall clock that so in- Johannes Kepler Nardin brand and was scouring Switzer- La Chaux-de-Fonds. His work for trigued Schnyder. land for ideas that would get it back on Ulysse Nardin is finished, at least for It was Oechslin’s idea that the Astro- track. Schnyder had seen the clock, an as- now: designing movements for that labium should be the first watch in a trolabe, inspired by astronomical clocks brand, or any other, is forbidden by the three-part series. “I thought this [one from the Middle Ages, in the Lucerne museum because of potential conflicts of watch] can’t be alone. It made no sense to workshop of a master watchmaker and interest. just have the Astrolabium,” he says; it timepiece restorer named Jörg Spöring, But the 59-year-old Oechslin is as would look odd to have one highly com- for whom Oechslin was working as an much a watch-world celebrity as ever, plicated astronomical watch in a brand apprentice. As soon as Schnyder laid eyes recognized everywhere by his signature otherwise composed of more mainstream on it, he knew it would be the perfect pince nez and rumpled vest. On a recent models. He decided to follow up with pick-me-up for his ailing brand. (Schny- trip to La Chaux-de-Fonds, WatchTime watches that would show two other per- der died in April of this year; see follow- met with him at the museum to find out spectives of the solar system. While the ing story.) about his work there, and to hear first- first watch showed the heavenly bodies as Oechslin made the movement and hand about his life before, during and af- seen from the Earth, the second watch, Schnyder used it in a watch called the As- ter the Ulysse Nardin years. the Planetarium, would show the Earth, trolabium Galileo Galilei, which came along with the five other planets closest out in 1985. As the first watch in the OECHSLIN IS AN accidental watchmak- to the sun, those you can see with the now-celebrated series called the Trilogy er, of sorts. At the University of Basel, he naked eye, as they circled the sun. The of Time, it brought fame to both Oechslin chose a notably non-vocational course of third watch, the Tellurium, would offer a and Ulysse Nardin, thanks to its myriad, study, which included Latin, Greek, an- view looking down onto the Earth from and unusual, complications. In 1988, it cient history, philosophy and the history the North Pole, and show the changing was featured on the back cover of the of art. And although he went on to get a portions of daylight and darkness as the Guinness Book of Records as “the most doctorate in history; to teach at universi- seasons change, as well as the rotation of highly refined timepiece of all time.” ties; to write scholarly and, to most of us, the moon around the Earth and the re- The Astrolabium was the start of a indecipherable works on topics we can sulting phases of the moon. long partnership. Oechslin designed barely pronounce; and to win universal The perpetual calendar, which movements for Ulysse Nardin for nearly recognition as a top-notch brain, Oech- Ulysse Nardin first used in a watch in 20 years, turning out, among other slin started out as an academic under- 1996 (in the Perpetual Ludwig, a limited things, the second and third watches in achiever. edition), was also Oechslin’s idea. Its the Trilogy, the Planetarium Copernicus “I wasn’t really good at my studies,” chief selling point is that its calendar in- he says. (Although with his owlish face dications are much easier to set than on and air of detached circumspection, a traditional perpetual calendar, which Oechslin looks as much like a straight-A requires many difficult adjustments to egghead as anyone possibly can.) “I need- reset if the watch is allowed to stop run- ed to make money. I needed to find an al- ning. Oechslin’s perpetual calendar can, Oechslin with Ulysse Nardin ternative to survive,” he says. Oechslin unlike a traditional perpetual calendar, CEO Rolf Schnyder had an interest in horology, as he did in be adjusted either backward or forward 112 WatchTime August 2011 August 2011 WatchTime 113 PROFILE Ludwig Oechslin one of the two best jobs I could have had; the other was as director of the OECHSLIN SOLD ULYSSE NARDIN Swiss Institute of Rome,” he says, refer- ring to the institution dedicated to pro- MANY STILL-UNUSED DESIGNS moting Swiss science and culture in Italy. (Oechslin was born in Italy, in the town FOR WATCHES. “THEY HAVE STUFF of Gabicce Mare on the country’s east coast.) FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS,” HE SAYS. The MIH, founded in 1902, and lo- cated since 1974 in a contemporary, un- derground building with 20,000 square meters of space, is one of the world’s The GMT ± Perpetual, most important horological museums. It which can be adjusted contains not just the displays open to the backward or forward public, which span the entire history of timekeeping, from sundials to current wristwatches, but also departments for horological research and timepiece restoration. When Oechslin got the job he bought a house famous in La Chaux-de-Fonds as one of the town’s best examples of early 20th-century Art Nouveau design, for which La Chaux-de-Fonds is well known (thanks to its use of gears rather than ment-rotation speed slightly, to once per in architectural circles. levers) and its day, date and year are hour, and used the escapement bridge to The museum was a relic, too, but of a synchronized so that they all move to- indicate the minutes and the mainspring less appealing sort: it had scarcely been The Freak, gether when being reset, rather than re- barrel, which rotates once every 12 changed since the building had opened introduced quiring separate adjustments. In 1999, hours, to indicate the hour. and was in need of major work. Oechslin in 2001 Ulysse Nardin paired this perpetual cal- The first Freak models contained an updated the displays, a task that included endar device with another Oechslin in- escapement called the Dual Direct, which expanding the amount of written infor- novation, a GMT mechanism that en- was later replaced by an improved ver- mation accompanying them. When the abled switching from one time zone to sion called the Dual Ulysse. Both had displays were built, visitors had more another, backward or forward, via dual escape wheels and were designed to knowledge about timepieces than they do pushers. The date changed, when ap- reduce friction. now, he says. “You didn’t need to tell propriate, with the time-zone switching, Ulysse Nardin continued to launch them too much. But today people come in and the position of the hour hand with watches with Oechslin-designed move- [with little prior understanding] and you respect to minutes was precisely pre- ments after Oechslin joined the MIH. really have to explain. This is the main served. The watch was called the GMT These include the Sonata, an alarm watch thing I changed.” Oechslin’s agreement ± Perpetual.

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