etting to know more about the Swiss watchmakers’ lives and understanding the world they were living in is truly fascinating. Their villages were often hidden in remote valleys that were especially difficult to reach. Heavy snow during the winter would provide the perfect conditions for meticulous work by isolating people at home for long periods of time and reflecting a lot of light in through the windows, in a pre-electricity era.

The arrival of the railway, requiring new infrastructure – roads, bridges, and tunnels – progressively made these places more accessible. Against all the odds and despite living in the middle of nowhere, watchmakers were great travellers. Some of them even earned a reputation for excellence in producing marine chronometers, despite living so far from the ocean!

Example of a new railroad dug through the Swiss landscape. Tissot Archive.

It is easy to imagine how these pioneers were welcomed home after long business trips abroad, with everyone eager to learn more about their explorations, the countries they visited, and the people they encountered along the way. The ‘mountaineers’ (or ‘montagnons’ as philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-1778] affectionately called them) would regularly meet in the church hall for lively evenings, sharing their experiences and offering a broader view of the world to all – and Charles-Emile Tissot (1830-1910) was one of them.

The Tissots’ watch assembly workshop that had been founded in Le Locle (canton of Neuchâtel) in 1853 started as a humble family business between father – Charles-Félicien (1804-1873) – and son – Charles-Emile. That same year, to enlarge the Maison’s prospects, Charles-Emile was sent abroad; first to the United States, where he would open a new market by finding agents to represent the brand, then to Imperial Russia (in 1858), establishing trading routes and initiating long-lasting collaborations.

In 1896, his wife Amélie (1835-1910) took the decision to record most of her husband’s trips in a notebook, like a retrospective. Charles-Emile was then aged 66 and she wanted their children to know how much they had both sacrificed to their business. According to her calculations, during his working life he had spent more than 187 days in the US (not counting 4 years of apprenticeship in New York) and 2,457 days in Russia. This represented a total of 7 years and 99 days away from home, she concluded (she only mentions Charles-Emile’s main journeys to the USA and Russia, not his business trips around Europe). No doubt he had had many stories to tell his fellows upon each return!

In 1876, passionate discussions took place at the local assembly meeting in the church hall when experts returned from their visit to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Even more so when the travellers reported, in great detail, how American watchmakers had come up with a mass-production assembly line that would overshadow traditional savoir-faire.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876. The US exhibition Building. Tissot Archive.

Machines were taking precedence over the hand-made process and the Swiss were not quite ready to fight back. Their major mistake may have been to ignore the rise of foreign rivals and rely on their own achievements for too long. Learning more about worldwide industries and their innovations was not an option, it was a requirement for every business that wanted to survive. Therefore, the Tissot watchmakers from Le Locle decided that from now on, as well as traveling the world, they would get more involved in the circuit of international fairs.

The first so-called ‘universal’ exhibition is thought to have been the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, also known as the ‘Great Exhibition’, or the ‘Crystal Palace Exhibition’, held in London in 1851. Originally inspired by previous exhibitions of Products of French Industry – regularly held in Paris between 1789 and 1849 – it was open to more countries.

While foreign nations were invited to present the best of their achievements, these events were in fact organised with the concealed motive of confirming the cultural and technical superiority of Europe (mainly France and Great Britain). Envious of the incredible success of the London fair, Napoleon III (r. 1852-1870), decided to recreate a similar experience on the Champs-Elysées, and the first Exposition universelle de Paris took place in 1855, soon to be followed by others.

Since the very origins of their business, the Tissots had carefully recorded every detail of their production – their watches’ movements and cases were all inscribed with individual numbers – their profits, expenses, and trading relationships, in ledgers, or what they called Les Grands Livres (lit. ‘The Big Books’). They also compiled letters, invoices, reports, publications, business cards, leaflets, anything they thought could be useful to better promote their brand.

xample of a ledger, or ‘Grand livre’ recording Tissot watch movements and its corresponding pocket watch, 1920s. Tissot Archive.

Today, a great deal of it remains in the Maison’s archive, revealing some of the situations encountered and the choices that were made over the course of time. Among this abundant material, a whole section is dedicated to what is left of Tissot’s big leap into the world of universal exhibitions, helping to reconstruct some of the watchmaker’s biggest adventures.

Paris 1878

Just two years after the Philadelphia Fair, Tissot decided to attend the Exposition universelle de Paris, focused on celebrating new technologies. A Swiss pavilion was erected along the ‘Avenue des Nations’ to showcase different traditions with individual buildings – a world’s-worth of architecture in one boulevard that met with great popular success.

Surprisingly, Switzerland did not build a chalet but a medieval-style construction topped with a giant clock, which was struck every quarter of an hour by two ‘Jacquemarts’ (or bellstrikers) each holding a hammer. Participants’ stands were located on the side alleys, close to their own country’s emblematic building, to display the best of their production.

The Swiss medieval building with its distinctive clock. Exposition universelle de Paris 1878. Tissot Archive.

It was a first for Tissot, who had to get organised. As it was impossible to stay in person for the whole duration of the fair – business could not be suspended for six months – Charles-Emile had to find someone qualified to represent the brand instead. A certain Auguste Cadot (17 place de Valois, Cour des Fontaines, in Paris) was hired for 5 francs per day, plus sales commission. The latter appears to have proved himself to be competent and reliable (he seems to have mastered the production of so-called “mystery watches”) because at the end of the exhibition, he was promoted to the role of Tissot’s main agent in Paris.

In the booth carefully arranged by Charles-Emile, a selection of 130 Tissot watches could be admired. Among them were unique precision timepieces or chronometers with a rating certificate, models with complications such as minute or quart repeaters, everyday timekeepers, and hunter and jewellery watches.

Every piece could be purchased, with a price range of 229 to 1359 francs. At the time, a worker employed by Tissot could afford the cheapest ones for the equivalent of one month’s salary, while the most expensive models represented half a year of earnings or more. By comparison the so-called ‘proletarian watch’ created for the working class by Georg Friedrich Roskopf (1813-1889) in 1867, cost only 20 francs. A Tissot watch was definitely a luxury good!

Example of a Tissot watch from 1878. Tissot Archive.

An invoice for 2,000 catalogues was also paid to a printer in Le Locle just before the start of the show. The first Tissot promotional booklets were intended to be distributed during the fair, it seems.

As a simple watchmaker coming from Le Locle, taking part in international events on this scale must have been quite an experience! In Paris, Charles-Emile could discover wonders from all around the world – from Morocco to Persia, Anam, Japan, and China – while presenting the best of his own workshop’s productions at the same time.

The Chinese pavilion at the Trocadero. Exposition universelle de Paris 1878. Tissot Archive.

Like every visitor to the 1878 Paris show, Charles-Emile was absolutely stunned by the gems and jewels brought back from India by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII, r. 1901-1910), as well as by the diamonds that had once belonged to the French Crown – all lavishly displayed in the Main Hall. Tissot watches shone in good company and were even awarded a silver medal at the end of the fair – a very satisfying result for a debut!

The crown jewels displayed in the Galerie d’Iena during the fair. Exposition universelle de Paris 1878. Tissot Archive.

Zurich 1883

Five years later, in 1883, a first ‘National’ exhibition was held in Zurich, Switzerland. This new project was not only based on the model of traditional fairs, which had been held by the main European cities since the Middle Ages, but was also riding the wave of the universal exhibitions.

Central Pavilion of the Swiss National Exhibition held in Zurich in 1883, where Tissot celebrated its 30 years of existence. Tissot Archive.

The show did not include other nations – it in fact focused strictly on the Swiss cantons, aiming to instil a spirit of unity and shape a common identity.

As part of this select community, Tissot naturally took part in the first edition (as well as subsequent ones: Geneva 1896, Bern 1914, Zurich 1939, etc.), celebrating its 30 years of existence by collecting new prizes.

The gold medal received by Tissot at the Exposition Nationale Suisse in Geneva, 1896. Tissot Archive.

Antwerp 1885

These international events were not always smooth sailing. During the Antwerp International Exposition of 1885, Tissot was at the forefront of a scandalous incident that occurred within the Swiss hall. The ‘Pateck-Schwob Affair’ erupted when a member of the jury belonging to the Patek Watch Company from Geneva stumbled upon a counterfeit bearing his own brand’s name – misspelled – among a competitor’s display of timepieces. Armand Schwob & Frères, traders in La Chaux-de-Fonds, were abusively using rebranding for sale.

This shocking tactic was very damaging to the whole Swiss watchmaking industry! It was the first legal test for brand protection in the 1880s. This case has since become the landmark for better protection of watch trademarks and geographic provenance in Switzerland. Ten years later, Tissot would face a similar battle with a certain Michel Bloch from La Chaux-de-Fonds who was inscribing ‘Ch. Tissot’ on watches bound for Russia. The latter then argued he was completely unaware of the popularity of the brand in this specific country…

The selection of Charles-Emile Tissot as a member of the international jury

The Maison’s commitment to these national and international events greatly helped strengthen Tissot’s visibility and reputation. The awards collected during the fairs also served to promote the reliability of the brand and sustain mass communication for many decades to come.

Example of a customer catalogue proclaiming the ‘Highest Rewards at International Exhibitions’, 1931. Tissot Archive.

Moreover, Charles-Emile’s personal dedication to the watchmaking industry, with his deep involvement in education and politics, would soon be recognised. In 1889 and 1893, Charles-Emile Tissot was endowed with one of the most important missions of his life – he was appointed to represent the Swiss Confederation at both the new Exposition universelle de Paris and the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, as a respected member of the international jury.

Alongside the brand’s official history, some fun facts can be unearthed from Tissot’s archives. Interesting behind-the-scenes information can be gathered just by reading between the lines of the accounting books. As asserted in the famous quotation, “Tell me what you read, and I will tell you who you are” , it is possible to infer that the Tissots were very concerned with understanding the world they were living in.

It goes without saying that it wasn’t always easy to receive news from around the world when operating from Le Locle in the 19^th century and that important business decisions would often depend on its collection. They had taken out subscriptions to specific journals such as Harper’s Weekly and the Courrier des États-Unis to better monitor the political situation in the United States [see previous essay about Tissot in America ].

After attending universal exhibitions for the first time – and with the intention of learning more about new technological ideas that could potentially apply to the watchmaking industry – the Tissots purchased various exhibition reports and a series of volumes described as ‘Albums des industries et des inventions’ [Albums of Industries and Inventions]. They were also regularly reading the National Suisse newspaper from Neuchâtel and L’Illustration – a French magazine – published from 1896 onwards.

Even though Swiss watchmakers most often worked in remote locations, they were always keen to learn more about the wider world. The so-called ‘Maison Girardet’ established on a busy road in Le Locle since the second half of the 18^th century, and which displayed all sorts of books in its windows, is a very interesting example of this essential need.

All kinds of information was also passed around through long letters written by friends, family members and colleagues away traveling. It is worth noting that in Switzerland, the telegraph appeared along with the development of the railways around the year 1851. However, there would be no radio broadcasts before 1922.

Paris 1889

Just a few days before leaving for Paris, in May 1889, Charles-Emile went to the barber. He undoubtedly wanted to look his best with a freshly trimmed moustache! However the theme chosen for this new exhibition – celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution – was divisive.

Portrait of Charles-Emile Tissot sporting a handsome moustache. Tissot Archive.

Consequently, most of old European monarchies such as Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Russia and Sweden officially refused to take part in the fair. Switzerland, on the other hand, didn’t give royalty a second thought, especially because Prussia had been expelled from Neuchâtel 40 years previously.

In 1887 – two years prior to this new exhibition – the Confederation had decided to take the lead in organising the event for Swiss participants. After the Philadelphia crisis, the Swiss had realized they were too humble when selling their national production. In contrast, the Americans had been very good at boasting about their technical superiority and modernity.

Switzerland had to learn from its previous mistakes, therefore a federal decree had been issued and the participants were all subject to State planning. 425’000 francs were allocated for common fees – including shipment, insurance, decoration and publications – and an official committee had been appointed to ensure harmonization.

Numa Droz (1844-1899) – born in La Chaux-de-Fonds (next to Le Locle), and active in the Swiss Federal Council from 1875 to 1892 – had been very involved alongside the watchmakers in preparing for the fair. He was also a close friend of Charles-Emile, with whom he had worked on specific laws concerning precious metal control and waste (establishing those rules was essential for the prosperity of the watch industry). In 1887, Mr. Droz would receive a Tissot gold pocket watch in recognition of his efforts to improve the Swiss watchmakers’ working environment and to protect their production.

Tissot gold pocket watch presented to Mr. Numa Droz by the case assemblers and manufacturers of Le Locle, 1st January 1887. Tissot Archive.

Regardless of politics, the Parisian fair of 1889 met with great success and is still remembered today for the Eiffel Tower – the tallest structure in the world at the time (312m high) – built especially for the exhibition. There is no doubt that Charles-Emile seized the opportunity to admire the French capital from the top of it.

Exposition universelle de Paris leaflet, 1889. Tissot Archive.

At the Tissot booth, the first so-called “anti-magnetic watches” were displayed – however imperfect they still were. At the time, concern was growing among watchmakers about a new phenomenon. The development of electricity and its increasing use in every area of daily life had started to affect the watches’ mechanisms. The influence of magnetic fields on their movements was a serious issue that needed to be addressed, especially since reliability was a key selling point. Various attempts to protect watch movements from electrical devices would be made in the years to come, before finally landing on some of the best solutions in the 1930s.

Tissot Lepine, quart repeater, 1887. Tissot Archive.

Once again, someone was hired to manage the Tissot stand during the show, leaving Charles-Emile free to pursue his own business, jury visits and meetings. At the end of the exhibition, the latter received a precious gift from his fellow judges: an ivory watchmaker’s magnifier engraved with a warm message. They were grateful, because he was the only one who had thought to bring his own tools for evaluating the candidates’ productions!

Charles-Emile Tissot’s watchmaker’s magnifier made of ivory and engraved with a warm message, presented to him by his colleagues at the end of the exposition universelle de Paris, 1878. Tissot Archive.

Back to the United States

After an absence of over 16 years, Charles-Emile returned to the United States in 1893. What a surprise it must have been to discover the Statue of Liberty for the first time when he arrived in New York to take part in the World’s Columbian Exposition!

The 63-year-old watchmaker had already had the opportunity to admire ‘the hand holding the torch’ when the sculpture was first presented by the French to the Americans for their 100-year jubilee at the Philadelphia fair in 1876.

Hand holding the torch of the future Statue of Liberty, Philadelphia Fair, 1876. Stereoview (detail). Tissot Archive.

He also had the opportunity to visit the crowned head of the statue during the Exposition universelle de Paris in 1878. At the time, detractors said Liberty was silly, because her head was empty! And finally, there she was – from head to toe – proudly standing in the middle of New York Bay.

Crowned head of the future Statue of Liberty, Exposition universelle de Paris, 1878. Tissot Archive.

Charles-Emile Tissot had always been at the forefront of his era’s advances. He had had the opportunity to discover the best other countries could offer, traveling around the world and meeting people at international fairs. He was also able to carefully observe his competitors’ good and bad ideas and innovations, while endlessly thinking about his own company’s evolution and making sure the Maison Tissot kept up with the times.

The Statue of Liberty