n Besançon, the cradle of French watchmaking, a manufacture patiently shapes… the world. By hand. In plaster, paper and pigments. Globe Sauter & Cie is bringing back to life a vanished craft: the artisanal making of terrestrial globes. Behind this singular adventure stands a geographer turned master craftsman, Alain Sauter, for whom the planet deserves better than a flat or fleeting image.

Everything began around ten years ago with a researcher’s question. Alain Sauter, then a lecturer and researcher in geography at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, wondered: how is a terrestrial globe made by hand? He found no answer in contemporary workshops — the know-how had disappeared in France — nor in modern manuals. His research took him back to the 15th century. Then, during the Age of Enlightenment, the last work still describing the process was Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie.

From theoretical research to hands-on experimentation, the step was quickly taken. In a cellar in Besançon, Alain Sauter set himself a challenge: to invent a technique capable of producing an almost perfectly spherical plaster globe. One year of trials, failures and refinements followed. In 2016, the sphere was there — precise, stable, durable. The project changed in nature: it was no longer just about understanding, but about creating globes designed to last for generations.

The first orders arrived quickly. A team took shape. In 2018, Globe Sauter & Cie was officially founded, setting up on rue du Cercle in Besançon. The choice of location was anything but incidental: here, as in watchmaking, work unfolds over the long term, with an obsession for the accuracy of the gesture.

“The globe answers a need to reconnect with materiality. People who come to collect their globe invariably experience that magical moment when they want to touch it, to feel its weight. This object is greater than we are — its power, its poetry. An emotion emanates from it,” explains Alain Sauter.

Today, the manufacture employs six people. All share the same approach: nothing is automated. Each globe is made entirely by hand, using 100% French, recyclable materials, following a process that can require between 10 and 70 hours of work depending on the size (21, 32, 50 or 80 cm in diameter).

Making a Sauter globe follows a precise ritual. A secret recipe of plaster and natural ingredients — the staff — is applied to burlap stretched over counter-moulds. After drying, the two hemispheres are assembled, sanded and prepared.

The cartography, produced in-house, is printed with carbon-based inks, then cut into gores — as in the 15th century — before being patiently applied to the sphere. Watercolour painting, using two brushes, creates subtle variations that make each globe unique. Several layers of varnish protect the pigments.

Each piece is numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Like a fine watch, the globe becomes an intimate object, rich in meaning.

Globe Sauter & Cie does not seek exuberance. Its clientele — wine lovers, watch enthusiasts, travellers, luxury houses — shares a common taste for discreet beauty, rare and exclusive objects, sometimes customised to the extreme. A globe can thus become a life story: travel routes, important dates, personal cartographic references.

“We identify with the world of luxury in the etymological sense of the word: light. Our globes are inaccessible, rare; they are not objects of desire tied to any form of utility. You don’t walk down the street carrying planet Earth under your arm. It is an intimate object,” Alain Sauter emphasises.

The singularity of Globe Sauter & Cie also lies in its position at the crossroads of disciplines: fine craftsmanship, scientific research and contemporary creation. The workshop takes part in ambitious projects such as Spherographia, a research programme supported by the CNRS and the French National Research Agency, or Scrinium, a series of globes exploring the geopolitical and environmental issues surrounding rare earths.

The manufacture has also signed notable creations: globes for cinema, celestial and lunar globes based on NASA data, works for the Château d’Amboise, and for the Vendée Globe.

Growing recognition has not altered its guiding principles. Supported by the Fondation Rémy Cointreau since 2023, the manufacture now produces up to 300 globes a year, without compromising on standards.

In a world saturated with digital images and instant data, Globe Sauter & Cie has chosen the opposite path: materiality, the long view and transmission. Like a timepiece that defies fashion, each globe becomes a silent witness to our era.