A watchmaker still lodged in historic Saint-Gervais

In December 1602, Duke Charles-Emmanuel of Savoy unsuccessfully attempted to take Geneva by surprise The names of the Genevans who died during the assault, which is known popularly as “l’ Escalade”, are carved in a memorial stone behind the Protestant church of Saint-Gervais on Rue des Corps-Saints. The foot of the hill of Saint-Gervais is also the place where Caesar crossed the River Rhone on his way to conquering the Gauls. Today, everyone rushes by those two spots without realising that an important part of Genevan and European history took place there.

Buying history

Rue des Corps-Saints is also the location of an inconspicuous little shop in which time seems to have stood still.

It is in fact a tiny watch museum that serves as a kind of laboratory for the laconic master watchmaker Bruno Pesenti, who was born in Como, Italy. During the past forty years, Presenti has repaired every imaginable time-measuring mechanism in this workshop. The concepts of time and time passing are mere conventions. However, in this location, they seem to be have become tangible reality. There are timepieces everywhere, in apparent disorder. But what really sparks the visitors’ curiosity is the huge collection of postcards featuring Geneva in the early 1900s and the well-stocked library of works focusing on haute horlogerie.

A large number and variety of watches are on display, ranging from a silent table clock with a rotating pendulum conceived for light sleepers, to watches from the 1950s. They all work and most of the straps date from the same period, but they have never been worn. It is easy to become a watch collector here, even if you cannot afford large sums of money. Indeed, the price for a manually wound watch from the 1950s begins at around 90 to 150 Swiss francs. Presenti also has turnips on display. It was the moniker given by Winston Churchill to his Breguet as a reaction to the fact that the French often referred to a pocket watch as an “onion”. Unlike the other watches, most of these turnips are second hand, as they show signs of wear.

Wallclocks

In the eyes of the layman, some of these dismantled mechanisms may seem mysterious. Every used watch is more than just a simple time-measuring tool. It is witness  to an individual’s story. It tells us all about a specific period,  someone’s particular taste and style. More often than not, a watch might be associated with a special occasion,  a shooting contest or a family event.

Master Pesenti has worked on the most complex mechanisms, such as a Patek Philippe perpetual calendar or a double-face Franck Muller. His greatest satisfaction is to finish up a timepiece and have it once again running properly: “Hearing the ticking of time makes us feel alive”, he confided at the end of our brief encounter – and his eyes brighten at the mere thought of the great international watchmaking brands.