![]() ![]() By motivating artists to aim for continuous improvement and rewarding their efforts by prizes, the Academy would thus reaffirm the supremacy of French horology in the face of English competition. ![]() Berthoud does not confine himself to providing an organisation chart of the institution, but instead presents the various benefits it would entail, beginning with economic privileges. The details of a project that unfortunately never came to fruition appear in the last pages of the “Preliminary Discourse” of the Essai sur l’horlogerie. The boldness of the project deserves to be highlighted: no institution of the kind existed at the time in France, nor indeed elsewhere. He believed that achieving perfection called for healthy emulation and even antagonism.įerdinand Berthoud therefore launched the ambitious idea of founding a “Horological Society or Academy” enjoying royal protection. Nonetheless, the Neuchâtel-born watchmaker admitted that the favourable predispositions of this limited number of masters cannot alone guarantee the perfection of the watchmaking art. For, as Berthoud wrote, “an Artist as I see him does nothing of which he does not feel the effects”. Those belonging to the third category, referred to Berthoud as “intelligent Artists”, represent the horological elite: they apply their natural virtuosity and their taste for art and for horological expertise to showcasing its excellence.įine Watchmaking is thus the exclusive preserve of these chosen few endowed with a singular gift, which they nurture by dint of experience, practice and an analytical mindset. Secondly, there are watchmakers wishing to stand out in the community and seeking to acquire the skills required to be recognised as artists, yet devoid of any innate abilities. Lacking any special predispositions or talents, they exercise their profession with no passion. The first and largest one is that of mediocre workers striving only to earn money. Nonetheless, the maestro also passed down other projects testifying to his boldness, including the idea of creating a horological Academy.Īccording to the explanations provided by Ferdinand Berthoud in his Discours préliminaire sur l’Horlogerie, watchmakers fall into three categories. Ferdinand Berthoud’s visionary spirit found expression through his legacy of watchmaking masterpieces. ![]()
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