Le Locle, Switzerland · 1805 – 1890
Sylvain Mairet
Partially verifiedPrecision watches and chronometry
Life & work
Sylvain Mairet worked in Swiss precision watchmaking and in observatory competition, a field in which individual makers could demonstrate rate performance against measured standards.
Records of observatory results are the most reliable evidence for such makers, since their output was small and their reputation rested on measured performance rather than volume.
Training, contributions & innovations
- Contributed to Swiss precision watchmaking and observatory chronometry
Inventions & patents
- No invention claim is asserted here; his significance rests on measured rate performance and fine execution.
Signatures & markings on surviving work
- Signed and numbered precision watches survive; observatory records are the most reliable corroboration.
Collecting significance
Signatures on historic work were applied by retailers and by later hands as well as by makers, so attribution should rest on the movement's construction and on documented provenance rather than on the name alone. A specialist opinion is worth obtaining before any purchase made on the strength of a signature.
Related photographs
No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.
Sources & references
- Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
- Loomes, B., reference works on British and European clockmakers (edition-dependent)
- Museum catalogue entries for signed examples
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.