Taking time to make time
Geneva is a place with its finger on the pulse: fast, dynamic, lively. But the city is also home to the traditional art of watchmaking – and there is no place for a hectic pace in this craft. Precision is the top priority here. Besarta Murti, the best student at the Geneva Watchmaking School, takes the time to tell us about this.
Precision craftsmanship where every micromillimeter counts
Besarta Murti is an apprentice in her third year of the four-year course at the Geneva Watchmaking School. In 2019, she was awarded as the school’s best student at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. During her apprenticeship, she learns how to make a mechanical timepiece from scratch. This requires precise work in the micromillimeter range. And that’s why the students even make their own tools in their first year to train their hands. At the end of their training, they are then finally allowed to hold their specially made watch, called the "school watch", in their hands.
Manual work that takes time
"Geneva is known for the Geneva Seal," says Besarta Murti. The seal of quality from the ultimate city of watchmaking stands for exceptionally high standards and testifies to the fact that each individual part of the timepiece is made by hand and therefore unique. This gives each watch its own distinct character. For Murti, this is also what makes her profession so fascinating: Ironically, the medium that captures something as transient as time requires time to produce it.
Necessity is the mother of invention
Geneva is synonymous with quality Swiss watches and is the home of many renowned watch brands. The fact that Geneva developed into a watchmaking city, dates back to the 16th century. At that time, the famous Geneva reformer Calvin had made modesty his virtue and therefore strictly refused to indulge in wealth in the form of gold and precious stones. The many goldsmiths based in Geneva therefore had to look for a new line of business. This was the birth of traditional watchmaking in Geneva.
