TIME LAPSE - 1880
Over a shared workbench at Patek Philippe, Marie Valentine Meylan falls in love with Adelrich Beyer – and tells him of her famous great-grandfather.
It was rare enough for a woman to become a professional watchmaker. To make it all the way to the enigmatic atelier of Patek Philippe was nothing short of a miracle. But 22-year-old Marie Valentine Meylan comes from a renowned western Swiss watchmaking dynasty and she knows what she wants. What she couldn’t have imagined: That here, at her workbench, she would fall in love with a Zurich native of all people. She admires 22-year-old Adelrich Beyer, who repairs watches alongside her as part of an apprenticeship, not only for his looks. His elegant manners and waggish sense of humour also pique the interest of the confident young woman from Geneva. They begin sitting together more frequently, chatting about each other’s families and their expectations. And, of course, the topic also turns to Marie Valentine’s great-grandfather.
Watch pioneer and contemporary of Breguet: Philippe Samuel Meylan
THE WATCH PIONEER
Philippe Samuel Meylan (1772–1845) was nearly as famous as his contemporary, Abraham -Louis Breguet. He was considered a pioneer in the construction of minute repeaters and created unusual pocket watches and figure automatons. His greatest invention was the Bagnolet calibre, which allowed for extremely thin watches In 1811, together with Isaac Daniel Piguet, he founded the Piguet & Meylan manufactory in Geneva, which specialised in exquisite, elaborate watches which they shipped as far away as Turkey and China.
Adelrich Beyer is also taken with his female colleague. Perhaps she reminds him of his mother, Karoline Beyer-Danioth, who was just as courageous and decisive after the early death of his father, who also completed training to become a watchmaker, and who even managed to obtain an exclusive space in the Palais de Credit Suisse: for three years, Beyer had conducted its business there, right on the opulent new Bahnhofstrasse.
Met his wife at an apprenticeship: Adelrich Beyer.
STRICT CUSTOMS
In any event, the two fall in love and want to marry. There’s just one hitch: The Beyers are Catholic. The Church opposes the union with the Protestant from French-speaking Switzerland. Adelrich, a man of action, doesn’t hesitate, and marries Marie Valentine on 25 May 1883 without the Church’s blessing. The Beyer family is expelled from the Catholic church and converts to the Reformed faith. This does nothing to halt their success. Thanks to excellent relations with Geneva, their watches are much sought-after. Beyer becomes one of the most fashionable shops and even sells watches to royal and imperial highnesses. We do not know for sure whether Zurich’s railway, ETH, and banking pioneer Alfred Escher, who wholly dominated Swiss political and economic life at this time, is among this illustrious clientele. Marie Valentine helps where she can, including after the birth of her first child, Alice Hermine. Son Theodor Julius, who will one day take over Beyer Chronometrie, is born in 1887. We believe these romantic drawings and paintings, which we recently found in a forgotten box, were completed around this time. Even sadder given the fact that Marie Valentine dies giving birth to her third child, Helena Adelheid, at the young age of 34, leaving behind a profoundly devastated Adelrich Beyer.
Recently discovered: Marie Valentine’s romantic
sketches and paintings.
sketches and paintings.
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