s someone who writes regularly about the watch industry, I have a self-imposed rule (albeit one that is not always easy to follow) to never describe a development as being “first” in the history of time measurement, and to use the word “pioneering” instead.

To begin with, the history of horology — like that of science, its companion — builds on discoveries our predecessors made. It is a collective endeavour, constantly refined still today. To borrow a well-known metaphor, we are dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants.

Furthermore, a brand that claims to be “first” runs the risk of one day having to revise its entire history, its communication, perhaps even its collections should new developments come to light. One of the most important commodities in watchmaking, an industry that conceives of time in seconds as well as millennia, remains historical legitimacy. Hence this eagerness to be first. Which is the oldest watch brand in the world? Who invented the automatic watch? These questions, while simply worded, prompt complex discussions. History is a minefield, a fortiori horological history. All the more reason to prefer “pioneering”!

Our latest issue is therefore dedicated to watchmaking’s pioneers, to the adventurers of time, to those who, colleagues as much as rivals, have together forged the landscape of horology over hundreds, even thousands of years, right up to the present day. Vacheron Constantin’s masterwork on our front cover is a stunning demonstration of human genius applied to the measurement of time.

Nothing fundamentally separates the builders of Stonehenge from the pinion cutter in Le Brassus, other than the sophistication of their tools and the public they address. The pursuit of precision, of beauty, of a job well done is instinctively human. Because when we master time, we dominate our environment, cross oceans and eras…

And so we return to the fundamentals of horology with a special feature by Vincent Daveau, one of the few journalists who is also a watchmaker, an historian and a yachtsman. A thinker and a doer: surely a description of these pioneers whose curiosity knows no bounds? We are indebted to him for his contribution.

History, like watchmaking, is a living subject, hence our aim has not been to paint an exhaustive picture but to recreate tableaux representing different eras that will spark our readers’ curiosity and inspire them to delve further into each of these periods. Because these pioneers of time are not distant, dusty figures. They are with you every day, on your wrist, where your pulse beats. The heartbeat of horology.