The timeless delights of Switzerland’s legendary Watch Valley, from Elvis’ diamond-encrusted $1 million Omega to assembling a watch under the watchful eye of a master watchmaker

The streets of Geneva’s old town are packed with tourists enjoying the early autumn sun. On the Grand Rue, one of the most prestigious of these streets, is the Initium workshop where Fabiano Pericles will introduce me to his craft.

The master watchmaker with an infectious passion for watches takes on a challenging task. On the brightly lit workbench in front of me lies a delicate mechanical movement – ​​an ETA 6497 to be exact. It should be taken apart with just tweezers and a small screwdriver.

You need steady hands. Little by little I slowly remove the small screws that hold the first bridge, the handle, the fragile wheels, the hairspring. Nothing should be touched by hand… and then your nerves start to crumble.

Adrian Baker with a perfect move

If that sounds like a job from hell, it’s time to rewind a little. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by watches and curious about the craftsmanship with which they are made. And as a collector, watches don’t just tell the time, they also mark important moments in my life. That’s why this experience, which comes at the end of a four-day tour of Switzerland, in a city that has been the heart of the world’s watchmaking industry for centuries, is perfect for an enthusiast like me.

Fabiano, who is younger than me but has a no-nonsense teacher’s attitude and a keen eye for detail, monitors my progress. I placed all the parts of the clock neatly on a plate and it looks equally satisfied. The most difficult part of the course now begins slowly, with the help of the master the movement takes shape again.

Bringing the beating heart of a mechanical watch back to life is an extremely rewarding process.

I’m taking the 3-hour Introductory Alpha course, Initium’s most basic offering, which costs £310. The most comprehensive, the Delta, is an eight-hour course where you build the entire watch, assemble the movement, choose the bracelet, case, dial and hands. It costs from £2,200 including lunch with the watchmaker and you can also take home the Swiss watch you made (initium.ch).

Being in Switzerland, land of experts and home to the biggest watch brands in the world, is a pilgrimage for any watch lover like me.

After the flight to Zurich I went to Biel/Bienne on the border between French and German speaking Switzerland.

The city is home to the Cite du Temps – the City of Time – located between the historic buildings of the watch manufacturer Omega and the new headquarters of the Swatch Group.

Swatch was launched in 1983 and many credit Swatch’s funky designs and innovative thinking with saving the Swiss watch industry when digital watches from China and Japan threatened to overwhelm them. Now Swatch owns Omega along with many other luxury watch brands.

There are two fantastic and very different museums in Cite du Temps: Planet Swatch and the Omega Museum. They complement each other perfectly.

“Being in Switzerland, land of connoisseurs and home to the world’s biggest watch brands, is a place of pilgrimage for any watch lover like me,” writes Adrian. Shown is the Geneva flower clock

Fit for the King: Elvis’ $1 million diamond-encrusted watch on display at the Omega Museum in Biel/Bienne

Playful and bold, Planet Swatch is home to 6,000 Swatches with lots of interactive displays.

Go down one floor and Omega presents another world. A golden spaceman stands in front of the entrance to an IMAX-like 360-degree cinema that opens the exhibition with a film tracing the history of time.

The cinema doors open to reveal Omega Land: Lanes of a Running Track (Omega is the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games); a lunar landscape with a landing module (the Speedmaster Moonwatch was worn on the moon by astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969); and housed in a giant bracelet that stretches the length of the museum are Omega’s beautiful timepieces from their beginnings in 1848 to the present day.

There’s even a watch fit for a king: the 44-diamond white gold Omega gifted to Elvis Presley by RCA in 1960, now worth more than $1 million.

The tour concludes with a tribute to Britain’s most famous secret agents with posters of James Bond actors Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan wearing Omegas – 007’s favorite watch since 1995.

It is time to continue my journey through the area called Watch Valley to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. As my train speeds through the Jura, the factories of the world’s biggest watch brands, such as Breitling and Patek Philippe, appear among farm buildings and hills. Their large rooftop signs make me sit up and take notice and marvel at the wealth of expertise in the region.

One of the highest cities in Europe at 1000 meters, La Chaux-de-Fonds is the heart of Swiss watchmaking. It was built to serve its trade. Thousands of buildings were built in the 19th century to house clockmakers’ workbenches. These buildings stand in rows on the slopes of the valley, facing the sun to let in as much light as possible for the master craftsmen. Unique architectural values ​​that earned the city a place on the Unesco World Heritage List. While many of the great brands today are based in the suburbs, the legacy will forever be linked to the golden age that forged form and design.

Back in Geneva, and as the travel minutes tick by, a walk along the lake allows me to think about my next watch purchase. It just has to be Swiss.

I go to the train station and synchronize my watch with the famous Swiss clocks found on every platform on the country’s rail network.

See you next time.