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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Museum · Paris, France

Musée des Arts et Métiers

French horological and mechanical instrument collections, including Breguet-related material.

Overview

Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum based in Paris, France. French horological and mechanical instrument collections, including Breguet-related material.

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.

Photographs

Musée des Arts et Métiers — lead image of the Wikipedia article “Musée des Arts et Métiers”
Musée des Arts et Métiers — lead image of the Wikipedia article “Musée des Arts et Métiers” — See file page (Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia), See file page. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

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.