Timeless Beauty at the Andreas Ernst Sammlung in Muttenz

While Bronwen Saunders was searching for a solution to repair her heirloom clock, she came into contact with John Joseph, a timepiece repairer and restorer with over 40 years of experience. Trained in London, John moved to Bern in the 1990s and took over Hermann Schudel’s traditional workshop in Basel in 1998. John’s speciality is restoring timepieces – mechanical watches, pendulums, grandfather clocks and pocket watches – with special cultural or technical significance.

Bronwen also discovered that John maintains the clocks for the Andreas Ernst Sammlung, a collection of around 70 antique clocks in Muttenz built around the holdings of the former factory owner.

On April 18, John led a large group of Centrepoint members through the museum, accompanied by Graziella Tecl, an art historian and a great-niece of Andreas Ernst. The Centrepoint members found the guide extremely knowledgeable and were fascinated by his insights about the watchmaking industry.

John Joseph with a timepiece at the Andreas Ernst Sammlung

In the workshop, John gave a hands-on introduction to the heart of timepieces – the pendulum, gears, springs, cables, cases and dials – while explaining the growth of the Swiss watch and clock industry from small farmhouses to large-scale factories. In the showroom, the group was dazzled by an impressive array of gilded pendulum clocks from the 18th and early 19th centuries, most of them from Paris. All of them are in working condition, although – for the sake of the neighbors – only a few are kept running.

“I was very impressed with the tour. The organization was perfect, and the museum’s guide was outstanding. We not only saw beautiful clocks but also learned a great deal about clock-making and the craft as a whole.” Mitchell Bornstein

The museum is open to the public on the second Sunday of each month; tours can be arranged by appointment. Special workshops and events for children can also be arranged.

Source and further information: Sammlung Andreas Ernst

Text: Michelle Lauterbach

Photo”s: Michelle Lauterbach