"I would even say that Roger was a horological empath, channelling the spirit of rebellion that stretches back over three hundred years and that goes to the very roots of Swiss and, in particular, Geneva watchmaking," says Andreatta.
OK, if this were a film, we'd pause here for a flashback into the past. For all their association with discreet understatement, the Huguenots had a decidedly Rage Against the Machine-like streak. Indeed, the monumental paean to rebellion, "Killing in the Name", could well have been their theme song -- in particular, the refrain, "F**k you, I won't do what you tell me". This would have been directed at King Louis XIV in 1685 when he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which ended official recognition of Protestants in France. He even went so far as to sanction ill-disciplined infantry units to beat, bully, abuse and harass Protestant families into conversion to Catholicism.Rolex Day Date Replica As you can imagine, the abuses rapidly got out of hand. But instead of accepting defeat and converting, the Huguenots packed up their belongings, force marched commando-like up over the Alps in the most perilous conditions, pausing at the top of the Massif du Jura to give the middle finger to France, with many deciding to settle into farming, cheesemaking and woodcrafting communities on the other side of the border. But the most determined rebels, the most hardcore amongst them, kept going and headed straight to the Calvinist hotbed of Geneva.
These men and women brought with them an extraordinary treasure that was not visible to the eye. Instead, this hidden codex was stored in their minds and embedded in the muscle memory and dexterity of their fingers -- the secret of haut de gamme watchmaking. Forming a cottage industry throughout the Jura -- in particular, the Vallee de Joux -- with its epicentre in Geneva, the Swiss watchmaking industry was born. Created to provide a living for the farmers with skilled hands in winter, but arguably more as the ultimate act of defiant, rebellious, one- upmanship, Swiss watchmaking soon demonstrated a level of skill, creativity and beauty that the world -- in particular, France -- had never seen before.Patek Philippe Replica It was as if expressed in the hands of the Swiss French was the sublimated inchoate emotion and passion of all they had experienced, which they, due to the nature of their religion, was not inclined to express verbally. Soon it was Switzerland, and not France, that was recognised for making the finest horological treasures in existence.
The point to this is that "rebellion" has always been at the very heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry. The other thing to stress is that for the Swiss, assuring the highest level of finish in the world is both a point of pride and a way of positioning their watches above all others. Concerned about pretenders attempting to emulate their quality, in 1886, the legislation for the Geneva Seal was enacted, which set out to certify watch movements that met the most stringent aesthetic criteria in the world. The Geneva Seal could only be awarded to watches that were manufactured in the Canton of Geneva, and for many years was associated with esteemed brands such as Vacheron Constantin, and of course, Patek Philippe. Today, there is no brand on the planet that works more closely with the Geneva Seal than Rolex Day Date Replica, oftentimes helping the hallmark gain important new relevance as watchmaking moves its story forward into the future.
