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BEYER CLOCK & WATCH MUSEUM ZURICH
Time on Display on Bahnhofstrasse

I’m not sure how the Swiss came to their fascination with time and precision time pieces, but it is as recognizable as huffing and puffing with luggage to catch a train scheduled to leave in one minute. The Swiss relationship to the precision watch is evident almost anywhere you go. From the altitudes of Zermatt to the streets of Bern where Einstein recognized the special relation of time to space, storefronts representing famous brands of Swiss watches beckon with glittering wonders from the shopping streets. In Lucerne’s headquarters of Bucherer you can ride an escalater past the world’s largest ball operated time piece. In Geneva, the home of Patek Phillipe you can find the origins of Swiss watchmaking (see Patek Philippe Museum), but it is in Zurich where the Bahnhofstrasse from the train station to the lakeside is virtually lined with watch makers and watch sellers that the Swiss love of time and bedazzling jewelry comes home.

The Chronometrie Beyer watch company was first recognized as a watchmaker in Zurich in 1760 under Frederich Beyer. 100 years later Adelrich Beyer, who had been employed as a craftsman by Patek Phillipe in Geneva, returned to Zurich and built the present company. The Beyer watchmakers moved a number of times before finding the current location on Bahnhofstrasse, where due to a law in Zurich restricting shops in the city’s basements, Theordore Beyer, who had been gathering a world class collection of time pieces decided to display his private collection for the public. The Beyer Clock and Watch Museum opened in 1970 in the basement below the firm's main store located about halfway between the train station and the lake on Zurich's main shopping avenue.

One the world’s best private collections of time pieces, the museum displays clocks from as early as a 1400 BC (not the least mechanical) to watches that have been to the highest points on earth to the deepest depths of the oceans. Swiss clocks with wooden movements, enameled glorious Baroque beauties of the King Louies of France. A Chinese emerald pagoda clock, a twin of one in the royal collection of England's Queen Elizabeth. A German Renaissance astronomical clock Theodore Beyer acquired after a night of beer drinking and bargain in the Germany Black Forest to Neuchatel clocks of Limoges enamel. A fascinating Planetarium table clock from the 1700’s to a “revolution” watch telling time according to the decimal system which Napoleon tried to establish for his empire. Iron church clock movements and two historic examples of Rolex watches - one which Sir Edmund Hillary wore on his conquering climb of Mt. Everest and a maritime Rolex watch built to withstand a decent into the Marianas Trench. The museum is open from 2 pm to 6 pm Monday to Friday. Admission to the museum is 5 Swiss Francs with children under 12 free. Guided tours can be arranged for groups.

If you're in the mood to take home a Swiss watch, the ground floor of Beyer is a dazzling display of beautiful modern as well as antique time pieces and jewelry, where while shopping drinks and finger food are offered the customer. Not exactly for the bargain hunter, the watches for sale at Beyer start at 1000 chf. As much now a retailer as a manufacturer, Beyer sells and meticulously services a variety of Switzerland’s best well known brands, Patek Philippe, Rolex, Chopard, Breitling, Girard-Perregaux as well as their own. Chronometrie Beyer also auctions antique time pieces through it’s Antiquorium, which has auctioned the most unique watches at world record prices.

TURLER COSMOS CLOCK

Should the collection at Beyer not be enough to satisfy your addiction to time, venture across the street to the Türler Company store. Tuerler is another historic watch maker and retail store in Zurich for 125 years where the Türler Clock is on display in the main showroom. Made of 1.2 tons of brass with 251 wheels and 155 pinons in its movement, the Türler Clock is one of the most complex time pieces ever created, designed to mark the time from its location in Zurich in relation to the movement of the entire cosmos, marking the "platonic year" down to the relation of Zurich to the horizon at any given moment. No admission cost is necessary to see the Türler Clock, just go watch shopping. © Bargain Travel Europe

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SEE ALSO:

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GROSSMUNSTER CHURCH - ZURICH'S SAINTS

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