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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Museum · Le Locle, Switzerland

Château des Monts (Musée d'horlogerie du Locle)

Horological collection in an eighteenth-century house, including watches, clocks and automata.

Overview

Château des Monts (Musée d'horlogerie du Locle) is a museum based in Le Locle, Switzerland. Horological collection in an eighteenth-century house, including watches, clocks and automata.

As a museum, its value to horology lies in objects that can be examined at first hand: dials, cases, movements and, where displayed open, the construction of the mechanism itself.

Displayed pieces are normally a fraction of the reserve collection; museums of this kind commonly hold further timekeepers in store that can be seen only by research appointment.

Diagram

12345let downstripcleanoilregulateorder of work; never skip letting down the mainspring
Schematic: order of work at the bench. An outline schematic drawn to show the arrangement of the parts discussed here. It is not a dimensioned working drawing and does not depict a particular maker's calibre.

Using it for research

  • Ask whether an online collection catalogue exists — accession numbers make a citation precise and let other researchers find the same object.
  • Curatorial departments can sometimes confirm attributions, maker signatures and provenance for objects in their own collection; they do not normally authenticate or value private pieces.
  • Catalogues of past exhibitions are often the best published record of what a collection holds.

Before you visit

  • Confirm opening arrangements, temporary closures and photography rules directly with the institution before travelling — this encyclopedia does not record them.
  • Working clocks and automata may be demonstrated only at set times.