louis moinet UNESCO 2014

Ateliers Louis Moinet in all its glory

On 10 July Jean-Marie Schaller received the “Merit for Development of Arts and Technologies” award from the International Institute for Promotion and Prestige (IIPP).

By Louis Nardin
Journalist

“I can’t believe that Louis Moinet is today, alongside NASA and Porsche, an award-winner of a prize from the International Institute for Promotion and Prestige – IIPP,” states Jean-Marie Schaller, CEO and Creative Director of Ateliers Louis Moinet. “From day one, we’ve strived to give Louis Moinet the place it deserved in the history of watchmaking. I believe we’ve hit the mark”.

Jean-Marie Schaller awarded at UNESCO

On Thursday, 10 July, the restaurant in Parc des Eaux-Vives in Geneva hosted a rare and formal ceremony for the “Merit for Development of Arts and Technologies” award. The event was lead by Gisèle Rutman, Chairman of the IIPP’s Executive Board. The institute was created in 1963 in Geneva and is affiliated to UNESCO. It has members from 76 countries, including Nobel Prize winners, ex-Prime Ministers and global representatives of the arts and letters. Amongst other attendees, there was Samuel Schmid, former member of the Swiss Federal Council who was head of Defense and Sports.

Presentation at UNESCO, Paris

During his speech, he highlighted Schaller’s “seriousness, skills, modesty and humility”. In more than fifty years of existence of the prize this is only the third time a watchmaking brand has received the award.

Transcendantal watchmaking

In 2001, Schaller, a fanatic of 18th century watchmaking, inaugurated the eponymous Ateliers Louis Moinet. Louis Moinet was a trusted friend of Abraham-Louis Breguet and had several sobriquets, among which was “Master of transcendental watchmaking”. A former architect, painter and teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Moinet turned to watchmaking and studied it with great fervor. He became a watch and clock designer and manufacturer and established a prestigious clientele in Europe and even in the United States. One of his pendulums is still at the White House and is linked to the building’s history for being one of the few remaining pieces of the original decoration. However, his greatest invention certainly remains his “Compteur des Tierces” chronograph. Developed around 1816, it could be started and stopped at will and is therefore the first chronograph in the history of watchmaking. Its 30Hz frequency preceded the other mechanisms of the early 20th century – still today considered the forerunners – by almost 100 years.

Louis Moinet Headquarters

Fascinated by the watchmaker’s unknown yet amazing fate, Schaller decided to make Louis Moinet a well-known brand. He also drew his family into the adventure. Indeed, his wife Michaela is an integral part of this much-deserved success and his children once even asked him: “but who do you love the most, Louis Moinet or us?” Louis Moinet was at the ceremony, though, impersonated by an actor. It was a surprise that illustrates perfectly Schaller’s enthusiasm and fresh ideas.

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