Watch museum

The Watch Museum of Le Locle (French: Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, abbreviated MHL) is a municipal museum of horology in Le Locle, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Housed in the historic Château des Monts, it ranks among the region's premier horological institutions and is frequently paired by visitors with the Musée international d'horlogerie in nearby La Chaux-de-Fonds. The museum is classified as a Swiss cultural property of national significance and is owned by the city of Le Locle.

The museum's origins trace to a cabinet of curiosities established in 1849, which gathered historical, archaeological, natural, and mechanical objects from the region. These collections moved to the former École industrielle du Locle in 1858, and in 1868 the rare horological pieces were transferred to the newly opened École d'horlogerie du Locle, where they remained for pedagogical display until the Second World War. At that point they were packed away for safekeeping and languished in storage for years afterward due to lack of space. In 1951, a group of enthusiasts campaigned to reconstitute the museum. The Château des Monts was acquired for this purpose, and the museum was inaugurated on 23 May 1959. Since 2009, the museum has organized a biannual chronometry competition. A watch restoration atelier has been visible to visitors since 2023. The museum and its conservation activities are directed by Morghan Mootoosamy, with François Aubert serving as chair of the museum committee.

The museum's holdings span mechanical watches, large and medium clocks, automatons, marine and deck chronometers, furniture, tools, and painted works. Three major legacies form the core of the collection. The Collection Maurice Yves Sandoz is especially strong in Swiss-made automatons from the 18th and 19th centuries, many incorporating mechanical music or singing birds. The Collection Henri Jeanmaire excels in marquetry clock cases by Charles André Boulle from the Louis XIV era. The Collection Alfred Huguenin focuses on the history of the Neuchâtel style pendulum clock. The museum also preserves a highly concentrated technical history of the watch movement on the ground floor, tracing the evolution of the watch from the Renaissance to the present. A thematic exhibition addresses the perception and measurement of time. The collections include documentary holdings: a library of approximately 2000 titles, the research archives of Swiss horological scholar Alfred Chapuis (1880-1958), the former library of French horological author Tardy, and old production books from the houses of Jürgensen and Ulysse Nardin. The library is open to horological scholars by appointment only.

Among the permanent display's highlights are a flute-playing clock with automatons attributed to Pierre Jaquet-Droz from the 18th century; a wall clock signed by the École d'horlogerie du Locle, 1896, with a wooden cabinet from the Brienz School of Sculpture; a pocket watch with sectors, striking, repeating, and astronomical complications, signed by Jean Miorin of Geneva, early 19th century; a hanging singing bird cage attributed to Pierre Jaquet-Droz, second half of the 18th century; a gold snuff box with singing bird, signed by the Frères Rochat of Geneva, early 19th century; a Neuchâtel "Restauration" pendulum clock attributed to Julien Auguste Maillardet of Fontaines (NE), circa 1830; an android automaton "Fée Carabosse" from the early 19th century; multiple Neuchâtel pendulum clocks; and several wall clocks with Boulle marquetry. An oil painting by Édouard Jeanmaire is also on display. The museum features a small auditorium where video presentations allow visitors to see the automatons in motion.

The museum occupies Château des Monts, a small historic country manor house situated on a hill about one kilometer north of Le Locle's city center. The villa was built between 1780 and 1790, probably by the Lausanne architect Gabriel Delagrange, as a country residence for Samuel Dubois (1739-1820), an officer, watchmaker, and sworn assay-master of the Bourgeoisie of Valangin, on the domain of his wife Marie-Henriette Sandoz-Gendre. In 1820 the estate passed to Dubois's grandchildren Frédéric-William and Julie-Françoise. The property remained with the Dubois family until 1912, when it was purchased by Georges Ducommun (1868-1936), founder of the Doxa watch brand. Ducommun removed the farm and outbuildings and laid out the park in English style. The estate later passed to his daughter Hélène, who married Jacques Nardin (1892-1950). After her husband's death, Hélène Nardin sold the domain to the city of Le Locle on 15 October 1954, and the city installed the History and Watch Museums there. The park-like garden contains several sundials and larger sculptural clocks, including a replica of al-Jazari's Elephant clock.

The museum is open to the public and is located at Château des Monts in Le Locle, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Its website is https://www.mhl-monts.ch, available in French, German, and English. Most visitors combine a trip to this museum with the Musée international d'horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a few kilometers to the east. The museum regularly hosts temporary exhibitions on horological themes and, since 2023, has featured a visible restoration workshop. Works by the Le Locle artist Marion Jiranek are also shown on a regular basis.