Fine Watches for land, air and sea

Exhibition at the SIHH 2006

The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie welcomes its visitors to ”Fine Watches for Land, Air and Sea” the twelfth thematic exhibition.

Travellers on land first carried portable sundials, much later they carried along clocks, but in the early stages their lack of precision did not allow a reliable measure of time. The breakthrough in precision came with the age of the great discoveries when the ability to measure the longitude of a ship at sea became the business of watchmakers before becoming an affair of state. It was Huygens, who is considered to be the father of precision timepieces who set the first milestone in this direction. But it was the French and English Watchmakers of the eighteenth century who contributed to a solution that led to the economic supremacy of the great maritime powers.

On land, the railway age did not result in the development of Watchmaking technique during the 19th century. It nevertheless contributed to its expansion and lead to the international unification of time when the twenty-four time zones were established. The first automobiles at the beginning of the 20th century watches induced watchmakers to create not only judicious but also aesthetical models.

In the air, aviation adapted earlier inventions for maritime uses until speed required a non- mechanical means of time measurement.

Today, Fine Watches are worn as an identity code, they respond to all imaginable circumstances in sports, business and leisure and they fit any personality or temporary occupation, be it on land, air or sea.

Over eighty collectors’ timepieces form the collections of the SIHH brands and major Swiss watch museums staged by Dominique Fléchon let the visitor discover the important contribution of Fine Watchmaking towards making the dream of travelling come true.

Download the exhibition catalogue