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  • FHH Academy

    Train and Certify, The Academy masters, delivers and measures watchmaking knowledge worldwide.

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    The Watch Forum provides a platform for debate to help craft the industry of tomorrow.

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  • Watches and Culture

    Attract new audiences and present watchmaking in a new light.

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Who are we

A not-for-profit foundation set up under private law in 2005 by Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux and Richemont, the objective of the FHH is to promote and spread the reputation of watchmaking excellence around the world.

It provides information on the latest news, history and skills within the watchmaking professions. It trains, assesses and certifies horological knowledge. It organises events and encounters intended for both the general public and professionals. A creator of content, competencies, connections and experiences, the FHH is supported by leading names in the watch industry and independent creators, all actively contributing to its activities.


Head office

Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

Pont de la Machine 1

1204 Geneva | Switzerland

T +41 22 808 58 00

Watches and Culture: Did you know?

  • Famous watchmakers

    Ferdinand Berthoud

    Swiss clockmaker and chronometer maker. Served his apprenticeship with his brother, Jean-Henri, a pendulum maker. Established in Paris in 1745. Disciple of Julien Le Roy. Clockmaker to the Navy (nominated in...

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  • History

    1844

    Adolphe Nicole, a Swiss watchmaker working in London, filed a patent for a system that returned the chronograph hand to zero. He filed the patent again, this time in Paris, in 1862. From the mid-nineteenth century, Swiss production...

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  • Glossary

    • Assortiment

      French term for the three parts of the escapement (escape-wheel, lever and roller). Generally, specialist companies supply watchmakers with the lever assortment.

    • Back

      In a watch case, the cover, transparent or not, opposite the dial.

    • Calibre

      Synonym of size. Sully used this term circa 1715 to denote the layout and dimensions of the different movement pillars, wheels, barrel, etc. Since then "calibre" has been used to...

    • Dynamograph

      Indicates the amount of tension in the mainspring so as to maintain it within ideal limits. Developed for watches by Audemars Piguet, it indicates the torque supplied by the mainspring. As long as...

    • Electroplating

      A plating technique using electrodeposition.

    • Finishing (Finissage)

      The final operation in a process. On a watch case, the last stage in assembling the parts so that they function.

    • Green garnet

      Demantoid garnets, a green, and very lustrous type of garnet. They have characteristic inclusions that look like horsetails. Demantoid garnets has a hardness of 6-7 and a specific gravity of 3.8 -...

    • Horn

      That part of a watch case to which the strap is attached. Horns come in various shapes and are attached to the case middle.

    • Intermediate wheel

      A small toothed wheel, part of the hand-setting mechanism.

    • Jewel

      To set or push fit jewels (ruby bearings) in a watch movement.

    • Knot

      A raised mineral inclusion in a diamond found at the surface.

    • Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

      A segmented luminous source used to display numerals on electronic digital watches. Operated by a push-button.

    • Movement

      The duly-assembled organs and mechanisms of a watch, meaning the winding and hand-setting mechanism, the mainspring, the gears, the escapement and the regulating organ (spring...

    • Nephrite

      A family of the jade group of ornamental gemstones. Nephrite is slightly softer that jadeite and is often veined.

    • Oignon (watch)

      A style of watch made in France in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Its fat, bulbous form suggests an onion. Most oignon watches featured a chased brass case, very occasionally...

    • Perpetual calendar (watch)

      A watch whose perpetual calendar (see complication) automatically takes the number of days in the month into account: 30 or 31 and the 28 or 29 days of February for ordinary and leap years. Unless...

    • Quartz

      Silicon dioxide. Also called rock crystal. Quartz has the specific property of vibrating at a very high frequency (32 MHz) placed under electric current. Under certain conditions, it...

    • Refractive index

      The ratio of the speed of light in air and the speed of light in an optically denser medium. Each gemstone has a specific refractive index that, when legible, can identify it.

    • Skeleton movement

      A movement whose plate and bridges have been cut away to expose the wheels, leaving only the substance which the watch needs to function. The movement is placed between two sapphire crystals to be...

    • Table

      The table is the large, flat facet area on the top of a cut gemstone.

    • Under-dial work

      Collective term for the mechanisms, such as for striking, a calendar or motionwork, between the dial and the dial plate.

    • Vibration

      Movement of a pendulum or oscillating body between two extreme positions (A' and A''). The balance of a mechanical watch generally makes five vibrations per second, equivalent to 18,000...

    • Watch

      A portable timepiece that functions in all positions. A watch comprises three essential parts: The movement made up of the different mechanical components required to keep...

    • Year

      A four-digit indication of the current year that changes automatically at midnight on December 31st.

    • Zinc

      A metal applied by electrodeposition (electroplating) to protect iron and steel.

    Expand Glossary

Glossary

From A to Z, we've got watchmaking covered!