000 05843cam a2200493 4500
001 62afbd3d43489
003 OCoLC
005 20240909204221.0
008 111020s2011 sz a b 000 0 eng
010 _a 2011043809
020 _a9783034310215
020 _a3034310218
035 _a(OCoLC)758099280
040 _aDLC
_beng
_erda
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041 1 _aeng
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043 _ae-sz---
049 _aHRSA
100 1 _aDonzé, Pierre-Yves,
_eauthor.
_0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nb2002082514
_96454
240 1 0 _aHistoire de l'industrie horlogère Suisse.
_lEnglish
245 1 0 _aHistory of the Swiss watch industry :
_bfrom Jacques David to Nicolas Hayek /
_ctranslation by Pierre-Yves Donzé and Richard Watkins.
264 1 _aBern ;
_aNew York :
_bPeter Lang,
_c[2011]
264 4 _c©2011
300 _avii, 161 pages :
_billustrations ;
_c23 cm
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
336 _astill image
_bsti
_2rdacontent
337 _aunmediated
_bn
_2rdamedia
338 _avolume
_bnc
_2rdacarrier
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 153-161).
562 _331560000039848
_b16688
590 _aA scholarly text in English on the history and structure of the Swiss watch industry (First published in French 2009 as BHM No. 14775) - Bookreview To understand the History of the Swiss Watch you need to understand the History of the Swiss Watch INDUSTRY History of the Swiss Watch Industry, From Jacques David to Nicholas Hayek, by Pierre-Yves Donz©♭. Translated from the French original by the author and Richard Watkins. Published 2011 by Paul Lang, Bern (Switzerland) 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-1021-5. Paperback; 23 cm x 16cm, vii and 161 pages; numerous tables and graphs; 301 foot-notes, exhaustive bibliography. Available from the publisher at http://peterlang.com/index.cfm?cid=165 for circa 50US
_ plus shipping, or at www.amazon.de. Most broadly interested students of horological history have -in the course of the years- read a significant number of books on the history of the Swiss watch. Most of these books fall in one of two categories. Either they are histories of the technology and innovation , or they are historical descriptive narratives regarding an individual or a brand. The book under review follows neither path, and thereby covers much ground hardly covered in any other publication. The author is a young Swiss academic who obtained his PhD in history at the University of Neuch©Øtel in 2005, and currently teaches at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan. His book is proof that in order to truly understand the history of any trade or industry it does not suffice to know the history of its technology, and the history of the key players (both individuals and corporations). Unless one studies the structure of an industry and how the different actors relate to each other, and how these relationships and structures change over time, it is impossible to comprehend an industry. Donz©♭ structures his history into four distinct periods: The first (covered on pages 5 - 26) is the pre-industrial era (1800-1870), before there were watch factories in Switzerland, which was characterized by the "©♭tablissage" system where the "etablisseur" ordered parts from countless independent workshops, and had them assembled by other subcontractors into watches. The result was an extreme fragmentation. In the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds alone there were in the year 1870 over 1300 independent enterprises (mostly family workshops), spread over 67 distinct specialities, but on average employing under 10 people each. Separate enterprises each made one component: balance spring makers, escapement makers, hand makers, gilders, case hinge makers, case polishers, enamel dial fitters, etc, to name just a few. The contrast to the USA, where Waltham had started mass producing machine made watches in the 1850s was dramatic. Rather than in a 'factory', Swiss watches were made in what Donz©♭ calls a local "industrial district" . The second period (1870-1918, pages 27-74) is characterized by the gradual industrialization of the watch industry. The Swiss horological industry reacted to the 'American challenge' by shifting production from mainly manual workshops, to mechanized factories. Just as important was the change from custom fitting each part to fit the others to part-making to specified dimensions and tolerances, a change pioneered by Jacques David, the young Technical Director of Longines, who - after experiencing the power of mass production at the Waltham booth at the 1876 Philadelphia exhibition -initiated and led a technology revolution throughout the industry. But there still was very little vertical integration. Separate enterprises continued to make cases, escapements, dials, wheels. Even if they were increasingly machine, driven they remained relatively small enterprises (the average factory in the horological industry in 1901 employed 37 people). The third period (1920- 1960, pages 75-114) covers the era of the Swiss watchmaking 'cartel', during which a government mandated and enforced set of rules prevented most forms of competition with
648 7 _a1800-1999
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650 0 _aClock and watch making
_zSwitzerland
_xHistory
_y19th century.
650 0 _aClock and watch making
_zSwitzerland
_xHistory
_y20th century.
650 7 _aClock and watch making.
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651 7 _aSwitzerland.
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653 0 _aHistory
653 5 _aSwitzerland
653 2 _aWatch
655 7 _aHistory.
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