Watching Out for Bargains on Swiss Clocks

The more than 200 watch shops and numerous public clocks in Geneva are a constant reminder that this is the heart of Switzerland’s tradition of watchmaking excellence.

Geneva’s clock-making tradition began around the middle of the 16th Century during the Reformation. Protestant refugees from throughout Europe, and especially France, brought the skill with them when they settled in Geneva, a center of Calvinism. A 1566 law that forbade the manufacture of crosses, chalices and other religious items converted many goldsmiths to making exquisite clockworks and cases.

In 1601 a watchmakers guild set standards and controlled competition by requiring five-year apprenticeships, followed by production of a masterpiece watch or clock. By mid-century the reputations of clockmakers in Geneva were well established throughout Europe.

Lovely Old Mansion

The best place to get a sense of the history, importance and ingenuity of Geneva’s watchmaking industry is at the Geneva Watch Museum (Route de Malagnou 15), which dates at least to the foundation of the Geneva Watchmaking School in 1824. The museum occupies an old mansion, every room of which echoes with ticks and tocks.

The museum’s collection includes priceless gold, silver, enamel and gem-encrusted clocks and watches dating from the 15th Century to the early 1900s. Most were made in Geneva. There are antique watchmakers’ tools, and exhibits about how watches are made and how they work.

Watch and clock shops are throughout Geneva, but many of the best are downtown near Place du Moulard, or along Rue du Rhone in the heart of one of Geneva’s main shopping districts. Elegance is everywhere; the windows of watch and jewelry shops are filled with displays of the latest models of the finest Swiss watches.

Standards for style and service are as high as the price tags. But even with price tags ranging into the thousands of dollars, Swiss watches cost about 15% less in Geneva than they do in the United States, and the selection of styles is much more extensive. Many shops also stock a range of moderately priced items.

How do you choose the best dealer? Visit several to compare styles, prices (most often prices are standardized, but shops do run occasional sales) and guarantee of service. For maximum consumer protection, buy your watch from a shop that belongs to the Geneva Assn. of Watchmakers and Jewelers.

The Largest Retailer

A good place to begin your hunt is Bucherer (pronounced boosh-rair) at 26 Quai du General-Guisan across from the Mont Blanc Bridge. This dealer claims to be the largest watch retailer in Switzerland. Because Bucherer’s vast selection of watches ranges from classical styles to avant-garde inventions, the shop offers a great overview of the state of the art.

Bucherer’s Geneva shop has an enormous, elegant multistory interior with wood paneling, sweeping stairways and gleaming glass cases filled with fabulous watches and jewels. The company, founded in 1888, has worldwide outlets and is headquartered in Zurich.

Regularly stocked are collections of top name, high-priced watches, including Rolex (stainless-steel models are priced from around $800), Piaget (from around $2,500 for a thin, round numberless gold-faced watch with black leather band), Baume & Mercier (from around $1,300 for a stainless steel Riviera model with a 12-sided face showing Roman numerals) and Rado (from around $2,000 for a scratch-proof Diastar model with square face and gold and stainless-steel band).

More moderately priced are Leroy (a division of Baume & Mercier), priced from about $370 for rectangular-faced models with Roman numerals and black or tan leather bands), Tudor (less expensive Rolex clones, priced from about $420 for stainless-steel models) and Tissot Rock Quartz (from around $200), as well as its own varied line of Bucherer watches (from around $80 for gold-filled models with black leather or gold-filled chain bands).

Pendulum Clocks

Even less-expensive Swatches (from about $15), Le Clips and trendy watches, as well as souvenir pendant watches (from around $45), are sold on the third floor along with Bucherer’s traditional hand-painted Swiss pendulum clocks. These decorative timepieces, made in a variety of colors, sizes and with several floral motifs, stand on matching pedestals mounted on the wall. Prices begin at about $300; similar clocks without pendulums cost less. The shop also carries cuckoo clocks for as little as $20.

Bucherer’s marvelous and prompt repair service promises to restore battered Rolexes or other brands to almost mint condition as quickly as overnight; watches you buy in Bucherer’s Geneva shop are guaranteed service in the United States at Bucherer’s New York Service Center (41 East 42nd St.; (212) 697-9636).

Gubelin, at 1 Place du Molard or 60 Rue du Rhone, is another large and reputable shop that sells a range of watches with labels and prices comparable to those found at Bucherer. Special to Gubelin, however, are two perpetual clocks showing chronological as well as astrological time, and indicating with beautiful enamel colors the world’s time zones. These clocks are rare and priceless antiques. Gubelin was founded in 1854.

Les Ambassadeurs, at 39 Rue du Rhone, is an official outlet for Omega watches (gold plate and stainless-steel models sell for about $580), and also carries timepieces by Tissot (gold plated models are about $300 to $500) and Audemars-Piquet (Royal Oak models cost about $2,600 and more).

Exclusive, and probably beyond most budgets, are three fabulous shops all selling watches of investment quality. Visit them even if you can only afford to look; the salespeople are genuinely enthusiastic about their products and will share fascinating information with you.

A Bigger Selection

Piaget (40 Rue du Rhone), the company’s only owned and operated outlet, has a bigger selection than Bucherer. Limited to the production of 15,000 watches a year, Piaget’s timepieces are extraordinary works of art. Watches with onyx faces and diamond-studded bands cost about $287,000 and more; 18-karat gold models cost about $9,200 and more.

Vacheron-Constantin (1 Rue des Moulins) has been known since 1755 for exclusive and expensive timepieces. Today’s models feature the world’s thinnest automatic movement. They are made in limited editions and range from about $2,400 for a rectangular numberless face with leather band to about $130,000 for a diamond-faced watch on a diamond band. The shop also sells Jaeger-LeCoultre clocks and watches (Albatross models cost about $2,000 and more).

Patek Philippe (22 Quai du General-Guisan), founded in 1839, makes classic designs as well as “complicated watches” with multiple functions and complex faces.

The most complicated watch, first made to order in 1928, features grand and small strike gongs to sound the hour automatically, elapsed time totalizer for hours and minutes, perpetual calendar with moon-phase display, split-seconds chronograph, alarm, sunrise and sunset indication, celestial chart for the Northern Hemisphere, equation of time, sidereal time and two spring developments--all in one watch.

Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing .