orn in 1921, Georges Dubois still lives in the small house bought by his father in 1923. Around the age of 15, not knowing what do in life but needing to “earn a bit of money”, he began working for a leather strap manufacturer and delivered the straps to the watchmaking workshops. “I saw all these watchmakers bent over their workbenches with their loupes in their eyes and frankly, I wasn’t impressed. That wasn’t for me.” He wanted to become a confectioner, but didn’t like working nights. But watchmaking soon caught up with him. He was interested in mechanics but due to a lack of places was forced to enrol in a preparatory course at the École d’Horlogerie. That’s when it clicked. “I loved it immediately, the calmness, the serenity of it, and the friendship between the watchmakers, like between bikers. We’re bound together by precision, passion and concentration,” he comments with a twinkle in his eye.

Georges Dubois

He graduated brilliantly in 1941 and was engaged by Rolex. “There were 17 of us in the workshop, we had one week’s paid holiday a year and I earned CHF150 a month. But I got to know Hans Wilsdorf very well, a wonderful guy, a very nice man.” After three years of an illness that prevented him from continuing, he recovered, “went and got my strength back on a farm”, then joined Patek Philippe. That was in 1948. He stayed there 38 years.

“I appreciated it right away, because I was able to practise my trade to the full. I started with the winding mechanism, we satin-brushed, polished, bevelled. And after that, I did just about everything: repairing escapements – a task that demanded precision down to one-hundredth of a millimetre. I did the casing-up, set enamelled dials, regulated balance springs, balanced balance wheels. Then I specialised in assembling dome clocks with their enamelled panels. No room for mistakes there. Right up to my retirement, I assembled every one of them,” he notes with pride. When asked what he thinks of watchmaking today, Georges answers unhesitatingly: “I’ve visited workshops… It isn’t watchmakers assembling the watches any more, but operators, each one doing a limited task. It’s not the same. Before, there were only watchmakers! I’ve had a good life.” His sole regret is for his wife, whom he met at Patek and who died 15 years ago. “Beautiful? Oh yes. And such a lovely nature. I couldn’t have found anyone better. She was 10 years younger than me.” And for the first time, a tinge of nostalgia comes into his eyes.

In the basement of the house of Georges Dubois, who in his spare time used to repair antique clocks and make things, there is a complete watchmaking and mechanical workshop, painstakingly created over the decades. He has already donated a large part of his impressive collection of watchmaking tools from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to his home town.

• 1. MICROMETER “The micrometer? We had to make one at the watchmaking school. One heck of an exercise in precision. I’m very proud of it. It measures to 1/10th of a millimetre.”
• 2. SCHOOL WATCH “My school watch. We had to make one from start to finish. In the end, I won the Golay & Stahl prize. That’s why Rolex hired me.”
• 3. SMALL WOODEN PLANE “This plane is a Catalina. The proportions are perfectly accurate. I started it with an axe; I carved it out of a log. That was in a hut, during the war, when I was mobilised at the border. I’ve always loved wood.”
• 4.TOOLS “Of all the tools, my favourite is this hammer. It’s so elegant, so fine. It’s made of brass, not steel, so as not to damage the pieces you hammer.”
• 5. ELEPHANT AND WOODEN STATUE “I was 18 when I made the elephant. It was for a friend. To sculpt the statuette, I took inspiration from a photo of the Ivory Coast that I liked.”
• 6. WOODEN PISTOL “My daughter was going to a fancy dress party. So with my lathes I made her a wooden pistol. I think it took me an afternoon.”
• 7. GIFT FROM PATEK PHILIPPE “I received this watch in 1973 for my 25th anniversary with the company. I never take it off, even when I’m gardening. I’ve had it on my wrist for 45 years.”