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. with a countdown timer and a GMT with the museum requires him to spend Two years later, Ulysse Nardin function, in 2003, and the Moonstruck, 60 percent of his time on museum work, brought out the Freak. The project was in 2009, which shows the apparent posi- and allows him to use the other 40 per- something of a salvage mission, Oechslin tion of the sun in the sky, along with the cent as he chooses. recalls. Ulysse Nardin had planned to orbit and phases of the moon and the Of late, much of the 60 percent has bring out a watch using a movement de- times of neap and spring tides. been spent organizing an exhibit on sign by the watchmaker Carole Forestier- There will certainly be others; Oechs- American watchmaking called Kasapi, now head of movement develop- lin sold Ulysse Nardin many still-unused “Philadelphia 1876: le défi américain en ment at Cartier, who worked for Ulysse designs prior to moving to MIH. “Ulysse horlogerie,” or “the American challenge Nardin and Renaud et Papi before taking Nardin has a lot of construction from me in watchmaking.” It’s devoted to the 20- her present job. But the movement as that has not yet been made. They have to-30-year period following the Civil Forestier-Kasapi designed it was imprac- stuff for the next 20 years: things I did be- War when American watch companies, ticable. Oechslin looked at it and decided fore 2001,” he says. thanks to their use of mass production that its basic principle, that of a rotating to make interchangeable parts, rivaled movement, could work if it were execut- OECHSLIN FOUND his job at the MIH or even exceeded their Swiss competi- ed differently. He increased the move- by answering a help-wanted ad. “This is tors in the quality of their products. Photo: Bea Weinmann

114 WatchTime August 2011 August 2011 WatchTime 115 PROFILE Ludwig Oechslin

Oechslin traveled throughout the SALES OF OESCHLIN’S has stores in Lucerne and St. Moritz. The Northeast visiting museums — the watch is priced at 5,000 Swiss francs, 700 Smithsonian; the Winterthur Collec- MIH ANNUAL CALENDAR of which go to the museum. Oechslin tion, in Winterthur, DE; the National says that since the watch was launched in Association of Watch and Clock Collec- WATCH HAVE NETTED THE 2005, between 800 and 900 MIH watch- tors, in Columbia, PA; and others — to es have been sold, netting the MIH well find pieces for the exhibit, which MUSEUM WELL OVER over SF500,000. opened in May and will run through 500,000 SWISS FRANCS. Oechslin spends much of the remain- Sept. 30. ing 40 percent of his time on a new ven- Like museum directors everywhere, ture, a watch brand he founded in 2008 Oechslin must also raise money for ac- named Ochs and Junior. The brand con- quisitions, research personnel and tains five collections, all of which use restoration. Sources include private unconventional displays to show the cal- donors, banks and watch brands and, not endar or a second-time-zone indication. insignificantly, sales of a special watch The watches have a minimalist look; the Oechslin conceived for the purpose, styling is the work of the industrial de- called, simply, the MIH watch. It is an an- signer Christian Gafner. One collection, nual calendar that combines an ETA the Anno Cinquanta, is an annual calen- 7750, chosen for its high degree of dar whose day, date and month indica- torque, with a calendar mechanism man- tions consist of round apertures ufactured by the Zurich watchmaker The MIH watch arranged in circles: the circles turn or- Paul Gerber, and containing just nine ange to indicate the current day and Photos: Bea Weinmann moving parts. The watch is sold online date. Oechslin says this watch was one and at the Swiss retailer Embassy, which The MIH got a facelift of the most difficult, and perhaps the when Oechslin took most difficult, he has ever designed. The over as director. Photo: Bea Weinmann reason is that its calendar mechanism Two watches from the Ochs and conveys so much information with so Junior collection: the Luna Mese, few parts. “To find a really simple solu- above, and the Anno Cinquanta, left tion is really hard,” he says. The movement is an in-house automatic by Paul Gerber. This model, like all Ochs and Junior watches, is sold on the Ochs and Junior website (ochsundjunior.ch) and at the Embassy stores. Its price is SF41,500 for the white-gold version (about $47,000 at current exchange rates), SF39,500 for the rose-gold one and SF34,850 for the silver-case model. The other Ochs and Junior watches are the Mese, a calendar watch whose date circle has a spiral shape so that the first and 31st days are stacked on top of week only because, Oechslin says, that is each other; the Luna Mese, with the same the only calendar information children spiral date indicator but also with a need. moon-phase display consisting of a round It was his own child, his son Giorgio, aperture that rotates around the dial, who came up with the name Ochs and mimicking the rotation of the moon Junior. In German, Oechslin means, around the Earth; and the Due Ore, loosely, “little ox.” (Ochse is the German which shows two time zones. Prices range word for “ox” and lein is a diminutive from SF6,000 for titanium-case versions suffix.) So Ochs and Junior seemed to the of the Due Ore and Mese to SF20,360 for boy, then 15, like a very clever brand the silver case, white-gold-dial version of name. the Luna Mese. Ochs and Junior also sells Oechslin agrees, in a way. “It’s super- a children’s watch, the Settimana Junior stupid,” he says, smiling. “It’s so stupid, (SF2,700), which shows the day of the it’s good.”

116 WatchTime August 2011 August 2011 WatchTime 117