In his book published in 1942 called Les Cabinotiers Genevois, Eugène Jaquet, who was then Dean of the Geneva Watchmaking School, reminisced about his experiences as a young watchmaker during the latter part of the 19th century. Among his memories, he related a delightful custom: the Pâté de Veillée and the Enterrement des Veillées.

The Pâté de Veillée (literally, the pâté of the evening gathering) was the name given to a ritual dinner, enjoyed by the workers together and paid for by their boss, which marked the beginning of the long winter with its short days and long nights. More precisely, the term Les Veillées came to mean the long autumn/winter period when the sun set early and the workers had to depend on the weak light given off by their oil lamps.

At the end of this difficult period, the term L’Enterrement des Veillées (literally, the burial of the evening gatherings) marked the return of the longer days and of the sunlight. This dinner feast was held on “the first Monday of the week during which people could dispense with the lighting of the lamps.” For this festive meal, it was the turn of the workers to pay for their boss. “And it was woe to anyone who did not have a solid enough constitution to resist the dance of the bottles… A medal was given to the person who, on this occasion, was the least able to imbibe in moderation, and he held this honour until the next meeting,” wrote Eugène Jaquet.

It would be nice to dream about such conviviality. But wait, if you think about it, it does still exist today, and we have even encountered it. But admittedly, it is only at the ‘small’ places that we have seen this particular type of sociability—in the ateliers, in the modest factories, in the Jurassian folds of the fabric of small watchmaking ‘factories’.
In the large companies, things are different. The director of the Human Resources department (whose acronym HR is chilly to say the least) keeps a very professional eye on the optimization and lubrication of social re-lations and human interactions. As its name indicates, the human has indeed become a resource.

And if the human is a ‘resource’, a ‘commodity’, then he is no longer a ‘purpose’ or a ‘reason’. Ah, but this is nothing new. Eugène Jaquet deplored this state of affairs already back in 1942, when he wrote, “In earlier times, these customs were de rigueur in all serious ateliers. They have unfortunately disappeared today given that in the current factories, which have replaced the majority of the ateliers, the workers know each other very little”. And when people know each other only “very little”, they hardly ever party or socialize together.

We were thinking about all this, as summer opened before us, while walking through the hallways of the EPHJ event in Lausanne, which brought together a vast assortment of watch subcontractors. Contrary to the more ‘starchy’ brands, these people know how to party together—even when things are not all that rosy. Marketing has no hold over them, and they spoke more frankly and freely at this show than in the corridors of BaselWorld. In a word, the atmosphere there was more ‘convivial’. It was more ‘human’. It was also more ‘cash’ and less ‘intention’.

So, you might ask then, what was the gossip at the EPHJ? Well it seems that the large orders from BaselWorld have not, by far, followed through. We also heard that many suppliers have not even seen confirmation of their first parts order from such and such brands, which themselves had proclaimed that their own order books were overflowing. Other talk centred on the current situation—in other words, if the train was finally leaving the station, it was doing so at a very slow pace, to say the least.

Yet, at the same time, we read the monthly statistics from the FH: “The Swiss watch industry appears to have found its cruising speed in the spring. The value of exports in May grew by 13.0 per cent to a level of 1.2 billion francs. This two-digit increase also had a strong positive impact on the moving average over twelve months, which should see a return to growth towards the end of the summer.”

Hmmm, these numbers tend to invite a few questions… Are these statistics merely pretence, a sham? What do they really mean in light of the comments from the subcontractors? Is there a Chinese element in the mix? Are the stocks actually selling or are they simply making a trip around the planet?

Whatever the situation, let’s take advantage of the fact that it is still summer, that we don’t need to ‘light the lamps’, and that we can happily put the long nights behind us. And let’s hope that we won’t have to swallow too many ‘pâtés’ in the weeks and months ahead.

Photo: Maerky Workshop, Grand Lancy 1898

Source: Europa Star August - September 2010 Magazine Issue