When his horological library was offered at auction on 15 June in Paris, the Manufacture F.P.Journe acquired all 273 lots, (almost a thousand books) for the sum of 760 000 CHF. 

A 40-Year Friendship 

Jean-Claude Sabrier and François-Paul Journe first met 40 years ago in Paris; at the time they were 35 and 17 years old respectively. Each man immediately recognized in each other a kindred spirit: both were irresistibly drawn to the mysteries and great achievements that mark the history of watchmaking. 

A profound friendship based on mutual respect sprang up between the two men. F.P.Journe will honor and perpetuate this enduring friendship through an upcoming exhibition featuring this unique library, which contains manuscripts by Ferdinand Berthoud, Pierre Le Roy, Antide Janvier ... all of which will be prominently displayed in the Geneva Manufacture. 

Jean-Claude Sabrier was also a recognized international expert in the world of Horology. His studies of the lives and achievements of the master watchmakers constitute a body of work containing crucial technical and historical insights. 

The idea that his library - a testimony to the depth, extent, and pertinence of his research - might be scattered was unthinkable; a wasted opportunity that F.P.Journe found unimaginable. Instead, he resolved to reunite these important books at his Manufacture. They will be exhibited in a custom-made cabinet that is currently being constructed, to honor J.-C. Sabrier’s memory and to celebrate the deep friendship between the two men. 

Jean-Claude Sabrier | Biography
Born in 1938 in Normandy, France - († 29.11.2014) 

Born into a family of jewellers, Jean-Claude Sabrier quickly abandoned that field to become an antique dealer specialising in collectible horology in Normandy. At the same time, he began acquiring the basis of the vast store of knowledge that would make him one of horology’s greatest experts. Beginning in the 1980’s, he worked for over a decade with the auctioneer Hervé Chayette, to organise the very first specialised auctions of collectible horology. 

One of the world's foremost horological experts, from 1960 to 1980 Jean-Claude Sabrier was a consultant for the Musée des Arts et Techniques at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, as well as for the Evreux, Rouen, Toulouse, Tours, and Blois Museums and the Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois, USA. He was also a corresponding member of the Scientific Council of the Institut l'homme et le temps. 

Author and co-author of many articles appearing in specialised journals, he also helped organise many exhibitions. Along with Bernard Seneca, he wrote the Evreux Museum watch catalogue; he was a co-author, along with Catherine Cardinal, of the book published for the exhibition on Ferdinand Berthoud at the Musée international d'horlogerie (1984) and for the exhibition ”La dynastie des Le Roy, horlogers du Roi” at the Tours Museum. He and Anthony Randall wrote the Time Museum’s Catalogue of Chronometers; and he was one of the authors of the catalogue of the 1997 exhibition “Abraham Louis Breguet 1743-1823, L'art de mesurer le temps”, held at the Musée international d’horlogerie. 

Beginning in 1980, he and Hervé Chayette in Paris organised the first specialised sales of collectible horology. In 1988 he became one of the directors of Antiquorum in Geneva, where he was the principal expert writing the catalogues for auctions of collectible watches, clocks, and regulators. In 1994, his book “La longitude en mer à l'heure de Louis Berthoud et Henri Motel”, won a Naval Academy prize. 

In 1977, he received a Gaïa Award pour his entire body of work. 

On August 1, 2000, Jean-Claude Sabrier left Antiquorum to become a consultant of the Swatch Group, in charge of historic and cultural heritage, and a consultant to Nicolas Hayek (the group’s founder) for the purchases of collectible watches for the group’s museums. He wrote the catalogue “Breguet in the Hermitage”, for an exhibition of historical Breguet watches held in Saint Petersburg from June to September 2004. 

In 2006, Jean-Claude Sabrier and Georges Rigot co-wrote the book “Steel Time”, about the gunmetal watches produced between 1850 and 1910, which foreshadow the history of modern wristwatches. In 2012, Jean-Claude Sabrier wrote “The Self-Winding Watch: 18th-21st Century”, published by the Cercle d’Art. The book offers a detailed account of the research done on mechanisms, production techniques, and materials, in the quest to achieve perfection in a mechanical watch. He and his friend Georges Rigot were working on a new book about the souscription watch. 

Jean-Claude Sabrier was also a member of the Jury of the GaÏa Awards, the influential and prestigious prize awarded by the Musée International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux de Fonds for excellence in the field of research, singling out the best work in the fields of creation and manufacturing of time measurement instruments. 

He left us too soon at the age of 76, but his many books and reference works will allow future generations to better understand watches and their mechanisms …