The Great Hall of Fame in a
Memory Time Frame

Time. The concept has fascinated human minds since time immemorial. Philosophers and physicists have tried to probe its mysteries. Astronomers have measured by the movement of planets; architects have studied it by the shifting shadows; geometricians have charted its course; watchmakers have captured its movements, and timekeepers have kept a watch on it. Time is the most precious of all commodities. Time is money, the wise say. Money wasted can be earned back. But time spent is time spent. It's gone forever. Time moves forward, like progress, like hope. In Switzerland, centuries of research and discoveries, inventions and innovations, have merged into a million myriad forms of aesthetic beauty that expresses the Mystique of Time, namely the Swiss watches. In these tiny machines of Time measurement, precision meets with perfection and technology with design techniques. It is fascinating to trace the two millennia of Time history.

ARCHIMEDES (287 - 212 BC)
The Famous Greek Geometrician, who is supposed to have invented the block and tackle, the endless screw, the pulley and toothed wheels. He was the founder of statistics and hydrostatics.
GIACOMO DONDI (1268 - 1360)
One of the most remarkable early clockmakers. A learned professor of astronomy, medicine, etc., he built a clock with a planetarium for the palace in his native town of Padua. He was the head of a family of horologists known later on as Dondi dall'orologio. His son Giovanni (1318-1380) was also an astronomer and physician; he built a clock that was even more complicated than his father's.

JOST BÜRGI (1552 - 1632)
Swiss horologist, astronomer and mathematician, employed as a mechanic by the Margrave William IV of Hesse-Cassel, then as clockmaker to the Emperor Rodolph II. He built many clocks, globes and other apparatus. For William IV, who was a talented astronomer, he made astronomical instruments, and used them for making observations. Later, he worked with Kepler in Prague and, independently of Napier, compiled a table of logarithms.

WILLIAM CLEMENT
A famous English horologist, the first to adopt Hooke's recoil escapement and to use a spring suspension for pendulums.

JULIEN COUDREY
One of the first French horologists; clockmaker to Louis XI and François I. From 1509 onward, he made minute watches, with which he decorated the pommels of daggers.

LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452 - 1519)
Florentine painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. He was much interested in mechanics and studied means of working metals; he used the pendulum for regulating the running of certain machines and was familiar with the fusee, gimbal suspension and proportional compasses.

CHRISTIAN HUYGENS (1629 - 1695)
Dutch physicist, geometer and astronomer. Inventor of the pendulum clock, the cycloidal pendulum, the balance-spring for watches, etc. Author of scientific horological works. Member of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, and Fellow of the Royal Society. Huygens may be regarded as the father of the scientific horology.

NICOLAS FATIO (1664 - 1753)
Swiss mathematician who settled in London and became friendly with Newton. In 1704, he invented jewel holes for watches.

AHASUERUS FROMANTEEL
Famous horologist of Dutch origin, who settled in London. In collaboration with Huygens, he was the first (1658) builder of pendulum clocks in England.

GALILEO (1564 - 1642)
Eminent Italian physicist and astronomer who made many discoveries in mechanics and astronomy. He built a telescope, a thermometer, the hydrostatic balance and a proportional compass, and formulated the laws governing falling bodies. He is of interest to horologists mainly because he was the first to discover the laws governing the pendulum and to use it for measuring time. He designed a pendulum clock with a special escapement. His son Vincenzo began to build this clock. He died before the work was finished.

REYNIER GEMMA FRISIUS (1508 - 1555)
Dutch physician and astronomer, professor at the University of Louvain, author of a Traité d'astronomie et de cosmographie in which he suggested using chronometers to determine the longitude.

ROBERT HOOKE (1635 - 1703)
English geometer and physicist who studied many problems of physics, such as the law of attraction, the nature of light, etc. Horology owes to him the invention of a clock with a conical pendulum, the recoil escapement enabling the amplitude of clock-pendulums to be considerably reduced, and a watch with two balances. Hooke thought of using a spring to regulate the movement of the balance; he even claimed (falsely) to have invented the balance-spring. Fellow and secretary of the Royal Society.

Sir ISAAC NEWTON (1642 - 1727)
Eminent English mathematician and physicist. He discovered the law of gravitation and formulated a corpuscular theory of light and the infinitesimal calculus. He was one of the chief founders of theoretical mechanics.

THOMAS TOMPION (1639 - 1713)
One of the horologists who helped to establish the fame of English horology in the 18th century. He was one of the first to construct watches with sprung balances. He was associated with George Graham at the end of his life.

JOHN ARNOLD (1736 - 1799)
Famous English chronometrist, inventor of a detent escapement, several compensating attachments for balances, and terminal curves for a helical balance-spring.

DANIEL BERNOULLI (1700 - 1782)
Swiss philosopher, mathematician, physicist and doctor. In 1747, he was awarded the prize of the Académie des Sciences for a treatise on the best way of determining longitude at sea. He published several monographs on the centre of oscillation.

FERDINAND BERTHOUD (1727 - 1807)
Swiss horologist who settled in Paris. Builder of marine chronometers, equation clocks, etc. Inventor of a detent escapement. He did a great deal of experimental research in horology and published many books. Clockmaker to the King and to the Navy. Member of the Institut de France and Fellow of the Royal Society, London.

FRIEDRICH-WILHELM BESSEL (1784 - 1846)
German mathematician and astronomer who published several works on pendulums. He invented the involute pendulum.

ABRAHAM-LOUIS BREGUET (1747 - 1823)
Famous Swiss horologist who settled in Paris. His work is notable for its originality, fine workmanship and elegance. Inventor of the "tourbillon" mechanism, the "parachute" shock-absorber, the lever escapement with divided impulse-faces, the "Breguet overcoil" balance-spring and a compensation device for watches. Member of the Académie des Sciences.

ANDERS CELSIUS (1701 - 1744)
Swedish scientist who suggested the centigrade scale for the measurement of temperatures.

THOMAS EARNSHOW (1749 - 1829)
English chronometer-maker who invented a detent escapement, built noted marine chronometers and made the first bimetallic balance with two metals welded together.

JOHN ELLICOTT (1706 - 1772)
One of the most eminent English horologists, Fellow of the Royal Society, inventor of a compensation pendulum. He built equation watches and clocks and helped to popularize the cylinder escapement. Author of several monographs.

LEON FOUCAULT (1819 - 1868)
French physicist, inventor of synchronisation; he demonstrated the earth's rotation by means of a pendulum, invented the gyroscope and a method for determining the velocity of light; he discovered the currents named after him. Member of the Académie des Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society, London.

GEORGES GRAHAM (1673 - 1751)
Famous English horologist, Fellow of the Royal Society. Inventor of the cylinder escapement, the dead-beat clock-escapement that bears his name, and the mercurial pendulum. In 1715, he also invented a gridiron pendulum, but seems never to have used it.

PHILIPP-MATTHAUS HAHN (1739 - 1790)
Famous German pastor, horologist and mechanic, builder of complicated clocks and watches, calculating-machines and balances. In the Proceedings of the Erfurt Academy he published several articles on the improvement of clocks.

JOHN HARRISON (1693 - 1776)
English chronometer-maker, inventor of an escapement, the gridiron pendulum and the first compensation-curb for watches comprising a bimetallic strip with two pins embracing the balance-spring. For one of his marine chronometers he was awarded the prize promised by the British Parliament for a satisfactory solution of the so-called "problem of longitude".

JACQUES-FREDERIC HOURIET (1743 - 1830)
Swiss chronometer-maker, inventor of the spherical balance-spring, with which he did research on isochronism. At the age of 85, he presented to the Geneva Society of Arts a non-magnetic chronometer in which only the mainspring and pinions were of steel.

ANTIDE JANVIER (1751 - 1835)
French builder of complicated equation and astronomical clocks, planetaria and globes of remarkable design and workmanship.

FREDERIC JAPY (1749 - 1813)
French horologist, the first to produce ébauches by mechanical means (1776). Pioneer of the French watch industry.

PIERRE JAQUET-DROZ (1721 - 1790)
Swiss horologist and engineer who, with his son Henri-Louis, built celebrated automata.

DANIEL JEANRICHARD (1672 - 1741)
Swiss watchmaker, pioneer of the watch industry in the Neuchâtel Jura, particularly at Le Locle.

JEAN-ANTOINE LEPINE (1720 - 1814)
French horologist, inventor of the calibre that bears his name. The feature of this calibre are the suppression of the fusee ans the substitution of bars (bridges) for the upper plate and the pillars, which enables the balance to be placed on one side, and not on top of the mechanism, so that much flatter watches can be made. Lépine also claimed to have invented the virgule escapement.

PIERRE LE ROY (1717 - 1785)
The most eminent of the French chronometer-makers. Inventor of the first compensation-balance and of a detent escapement. He discovered "Pierre Le Roy's rule", whereby any balance-spring has a certain length that makes it isochronous.

GEORGES-AUGUSTE LESCHOT (1800 - 1884)
Swiss engineer, inventor of the first machines for manufacturing the various parts of watches in order to obtain interchangeable parts. He also invented the process of perforating rocks with a crown of black diamonds.

NEVIL MASKELYNE (1732 - 1811)
Director of Greenwich Observatory, much concerned with the chronometric experiments of Harrison and Mudge.

THOMAS MERCER (1822 - 1900)
English chronometer-maker, founder of a very well-known marine-chronometer factory.

THOMAS MUDGE (1715 - 1794)
Famous English chronometer-maker; he invented the lever escapement about 1757 and used rubies for the pallets and the impulse-pin.

JEAN-CHRISTIAN OERSTED (1777 - 1851)
Danish physicist who discovered the influence of an electric current on a magnetized needle.

ABRAHAM-LOUIS PERRELET (1729 - 1826)
Eminent Swiss horologist, inventor of the so-called perpetual watch and of the pedometer.

ADRIEN PHILIPPE (1815 - 1894)
French horologist, founder of the firm Patek, Philippe of Geneva. He invented a keyless watch.

HENRY SULLY (1680 - 1729)
English horologist who lived for many years in France and in 1718 founded a watch factory at Versailles. He constructed a marine chronometer for the determination of longitude.

BAHNE BONNIKSEN (1859 - 1935)
Danish horologist who settled in in England; inventor of the socalled "karussel" mechanism, similar to the tourbillon, but turning more slowly.

PAUL DITISHEIM (1868 - 1945)
Famous Swiss chronometer-maker. A tireless research-worker, he studied the influence of atmospheric pressure and magnetic fields on the performance of chronometers, watch-oils and temperature-compensation. He invented the affix balance. Author of many publications

CHARLES-EDOUARD GUILLAUME (1861 - 1938)
Swiss physicist, Director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. Known to horologists for his remarkable work on alloys of steel and nickel, resulting in the invar pendulum-rod, the integral balance named after him and the compensating balance-spring. Author of many publications.

ADRIEN JAQUEROD (1877 - 1957)
Professor of experimental physics at the University of Neuchâtel. He was interested in horological problems and published interesting articles on the influence of atmospheric pressure and magnetic fields on the rate of watches, glass balance-springs, the validity of Hooke's law, etc. Founder and president of the Swiss Chronometry Society and creator of the Swiss Laboratory of Horological Research, where physicists, chemists, metallurgists and horologists are trying to solve the problems of the construction of chronometric instruments.