he best way to reach Sainte-Croix is by the narrow-gauge railway that climbs the Jura’s wooded slopes all the way to the town, which sits on a natural balcony above Yverdon-les-Bains. Look eastwards as you approach and you’ll see Institut de la Mécanique d’Art (IMA). As well as Mec-Art and its workshops, its building houses the watchmaking ateliers of De Bethune (including the recently opened balance-spring facility, see Europa Star 1/26), as well as music-box manufacturer Reuge and a small “secret” workshop belonging to Van Cleef & Arpels.

Look west, into the scenic valley, and you can make out what’s left of the old foundry and its furnaces. Here, as elsewhere, the presence of iron ore would shape the region’s history, but that’s another story (which you can read about in our article on the MUMAPS museum here).

More than a century after the opening, in 1893, of the railway thanks to which Sainte-Croix developed a (now defunct) precision mechanics industry, the town’s mechanical tradition has continued to the point that it is now the busiest — and best known — centre for art mechanics, perpetuating the multiple skills this discipline implies and championing the innovation that makes it a living and contemporary art.

Active since 2016 and registered in 2021, Association Mec-Art pour la Mécanique d’Art groups together the finest and most diverse practitioners of art mechanics in Sainte-Croix, L’Auberson, La Chaux, Bullet and Mauborget (the “Balcon du Jura”), from watchmakers, automaton-makers and music-box specialists to teachers, artists, sculptors, musicians, historians and academics. They are supported by Lausanne’s biggest art school, ECAL, as well as training organisations, skill centres, institutional partners and local businesses.

Mec-Art’s mission is “to preserve the skills of art mechanics as still practiced on the Balcon du Jura Vaudois and which are at risk of disappearing.” Preservation implies transmission, as we discovered when we met with Mec-Art’s director, Pierre Fellay.

Europa Star: In December 2020 the craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. However, preserving these skills is only part of the story. The aim is also to pass them on and keep them alive.

Pierre Fellay: The two go together. At Mec-Art, we aim to keep a tradition alive, to open up new perspectives and carve out its future. As François Junod likes to say, you should always look at how something used to be done, go in search of forgotten techniques and work forwards from there. But we don’t go looking for these techniques simply to label them and archive them away. The whole point is for them to be passed on, revitalised.

How exactly is this done?

Through a series of concrete initiatives. As far back as 2018, we launched “Introduction to Mechanical Art”, which is a full-time, four-week course at the end of which students produce a pièce d’école. The first week, which we’ve called “At the Heart of the Material”, combines theory with practice. It examines the properties and functions of the different materials employed in art mechanics. Students learn about the technology of measuring instruments, basic knowledge of machining, mechanical manufacturing, additive techniques, sawing, filing and piercing. They also make their first pieces at the workbench. This week also includes demonstrations of forging, soldering and bronze casting.

Not bad for a first week!

During their second week, “At the Heart of Time”, participants focus on the clock mechanism. They study what a driving force is in a movement, and how an escapement is regulated. The next stage is to assemble the barrel, harden and polish the pallet levers, assemble and adjust the escapement, and apply lubricant.

In the third week, “At the Heart of Music”, for the theoretical part, participants study mechanical music theory and arrangements. They learn about singing birds, including the bellows, old and new technologies, automata functions, cams, levers and finishing. After that, they assemble the hammers, flywheel, governor, worm gear and, of course, the cylinder for the musical mechanism that will be part of their pièce d’école.

Which leaves the fourth and final week, when students travel to “the Heart of the Automaton” and assemble their Walking Man.

That’s right. After an introduction to the history of automata and other mechanical animated objects, students personalise the head, hands and feet of their Walking Man, as well as finish and assemble the other body parts. This way, each pièce d’école is a reflection of its maker’s imagination. Next, they connect him to the mechanisms they’ve produced over the course of the previous weeks, make the various levers, rods and springs, cut the cams, then make the final finishes and adjustments.

That’s an impressive programme. Who is it for?

There are maximum nine students per session. We just finished a session in English and have one in French scheduled for this autumn. Participants come from different backgrounds. Some are motivated by a professional goal, for others it’s a hobby, a leisure interest. We get people from the art world, too. A third of participants with an existing technical qualification have found employment here in the region, in Sainte-Croix.

A sure sign of success!

Definitely, so much so in fact that in 2027 we’re launching a 12-week course spread over 12 months, aimed at mechanics and project managers in art mechanics. Not forgetting a shorter, two-day introduction to milling and turning on machines, led by specialist artisans.

Mec-Art has the benefit of its own machinery, tools, materials and a fully equipped workshop. You’re in a building where complementary disciplines connect on a daily basis and you collaborate with experienced, often renowned professionals who contribute their knowledge and expertise.

And this is just the beginning. We want this building to become a hub for all the disciplines needed to promote and innovate in art mechanics. We already have luthiers, cabinetmakers, feather artists, but we are still looking for enamel specialists and glassmakers. Recognition by UNESCO has definitely given art mechanics a huge boost.