Welcome to Geneva, Switzerland! I am Jean-Paul Baptiste, a watchmaker whose family moved here from France about a century ago.
My grandfather, who was a watchmaker too, used to say to me, "Jean-Paul, all the best watchmakers are French."
But now, in 1676, many French watchmakers live in Geneva; in fact, Geneva has the most watchmakers in the world.
We are called cabinotiers because we work in shops almost as small as a cabinet.
But even though our workshops may be small, the workmanship of our watches is grand indeed.
Becoming a watchmaker takes hard work and patience because the parts of a watch are so tiny.
The precision needed to create or repair a watch takes a long time to learn, so you must start as an apprentice.
For example, when I was 15, I apprenticed to an excellent watchmaker who is a friend of my grandfather.
After five years as an apprentice a person with real aptitude will be hired by a master watchmaker to be an assistant in his workshop.
The work is tedious at times, the hours are long, and the pay is meager, but you learn a lot.
After my apprenticeship I was fortunate to be hired by Monsieur Girard, a master watchmaker and one of the best in Geneva.
The rules of a watchmaker's education are set down by the Watchmakers' Guild of Geneva, which was established in 1601.
The guild is a group that was created by talented watchmakers to ensure that every watchmaker in the city is an artist of the highest quality.
In order to join the guild, a young man must work with a master watchmaker for three years,
and within that time, he must create a watch to present to the guild.
This watch is known as his masterpiece. If the guild approves his watch, the young man becomes a master and a member of the guild.
Only then is he allowed to open his own shop.
If the young watchmaker's watch is not approved, he can never open his own business and must toil as a watchmaker's assistant forevermore.
As for me I successfully produced my masterpiece in just over a year.
Naturally that watch is on display at my own workshop here on Saint-Gervais Street.
Watchmaking requires many tools and accessories.
First of all, there's my workbench, which is very important because it holds small hammers, brushes, tweezers,
and anything else I need to repair or make a watch.
This bench keeps my tools organized in small drawers,
and I, like other watchmakers, have placed it in front of a large window that gets good natural light.
Second, a watchmaker needs a magnifying eyeglass called a loupe to see close up the details of the inside of a watch.
Third, various types of polishing and shaping implements are needed, such as oilstones and bluestones.
Lastly, every watchmaker needs a small lathe, a very ancient tool.
The lathe is a machine that holds a piece of material, such as wood or metal, in place and rotates it.
This allows a craftsman to shape the material using both hands, as he likes.
I have operated my own shop for almost twenty years, and currently I have two apprentices, Max and Julian, who help keep the workshop clean.
We do a lot of filing and shaping of metal, which creates countless tiny slivers of brass and steel that get all over the place.
We also use large amounts of sperm whale oil to make sure the watch parts move together smoothly, but it drips on everything and makes a mess.
Watchmaking has changed substantially since my grandfather's day.
Back then a fusee was commonly used in watches.
A fusee is a kind of cone-shaped device that has a post attached to a wheel.
A chain is wrapped around the fusee, and the chain is attached to a metal coil, which is around another post inside a barrel-shaped container.
The metal coil turns the barrel, and then the barrel turns the fusee by pulling on the chain.
The fusee moves the wheel, and time ticks by as the metal coil slowly unwraps.
When the metal coil completely uncurls, it can be wound up again by a watch key.
This older type of watch had only an hour hand, and it didn't keep time very well since it kept running down quickly.
Plus these watches were also thick and heavy.
People wore them on chains around their necks as jewelry, and the wealthy decorated them with precious gems and gold.
But this custom changed when the preacher John Calvin came to Geneva in the mid-1500s
and passed laws that forbade anyone from wearing big pieces of jewelry.
The watchmakers quickly realized they'd have to make their watches smaller and lighter, and they also wanted them to keep better time.
After many years of experimentation, last year the spiral balance spring was invented.
It is a finely coiled spring made of steel that balances the movements of the watch.
Imagine a grandfather clock with a pendulum moving back and forth at an even speed.
This movement drives the ticking of the clock.
This new little spring does the same thing inside a watch.
Timekeeping has now become more accurate, and watches made now have two hands instead of one—another hand has been added to count the minutes.
Just think how our concept of time has changed because of this little invention.
Now I can tell precisely how late my apprentices are arriving at work in the morning!
It has certainly been an exciting year for watchmakers; my workshop has a large number of orders for watches with the spiral balance spring.
We will be quite busy, I can assure you, but we won't just be making watches.
My shop also makes surgical instruments and mechanical figures called automata.
But I must admit, for me, making a beautiful pocket watch is the most rewarding work of all.
Even though I am now 41 years old and my eyesight is not as good as it once was, I can still make masterpieces that will last a long time.
Combining beauty and quality is the key to making a good timepiece,
and Jean-Paul Baptiste has always been known on Saint-Gervais Street as a true artist!