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This seems to me the ideal occasion to introduce not just the work but also the man. Louis Cottier was an extrovert, a kind man, a “Sunday painter” as he called himself, a constructor of automata and singing birds and of the shadow theaters called “ombres chinoises” in French, a lover of mecha-nical music, and a restorer of clocks and watches so talented that Alfred Chapuis, the well-known horological historian, recommended him to Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex, who entrusted him with the restoration and maintenance of his collection of antique watches. Louis Cottier was born on September 28, 1894 in Carouge, a small Sardinian enclave which dates from the reign of the Bourbons. Even today Carouge’s architecture, town squares, churches, and even its inha-bitants, reflect the Italian influence of its origins. The atmosphere is indeed quite different from the Calvinist mentality that has so influenced Carouge’s larger neighbor, Geneva. Cottier came by his talents naturally. His father Emmanuel was known as a maker of watches and automata and had a workshop in the rue Saint-Victor. Louis attended the Geneva school of horo-logy in the rue Necker, in the class of another impor-tant figure in Genevan horology, Henry Hess. The teaching of this master profoundly influenced the young man and proved to be of great help to him in later years, particularly during the difficult time of the Great Depression. Once his training was completed, he worked as master horologist in seve-ral local factories. The economic crisis forced com-panies to drastically reduce production, certain of them closing down entirely. It is at this time that Louis Cottier decided to go into business on his own, working for 13 years in the back room of a book and stationery shop which his wife operated at rue Vautier 45 in Carouge. In this modest atelier he began his activity as a maker of desk clocks, pocket watches, wristwatches and hand-made pro-totypes. In the beginning, he made wristwatches without hands, and watches with jumping digital hours, as well as watches with automata and jacque-marts. It was in this workshop that his first World Time pocket watch was made in 1931 for Beszan-ger, a well-known local jewelry and watch shop. Cottier became a specialist in World Time time-pieces, constructing hand-made models for the lar-gest Geneva firms, all with similar characteristics. Among his best customers was Patek Philippe, the firm which entrusted him with the development and fabrication of the greatest number of compli-cated watches. Companies such as Vacheron Cons-tantin and Agassiz also turned to him for World Time watches, as did Rolex, when they mandated him in the early 1940’s with the production of a small series of pocket watches with World Time indication, Ref. 4262 – one of these will be offered in our October 19 and 20 sale.
In 1937, Cottier created a World Time wristwatch with rectangular movement. That same year, for Patek Philippe, he made the smallest World Time wristwatch in the world. (Also included in the Octo-ber sale, see illustration).That same year and the following year, in 1937 and 1938, Patek Philippe asked him to produce a World Time desk clock with Grande and Petite Sonnerie, and with a three-dimensional moon, a black and white agate rotating sphere (see Antiquorum sale April 1997, lot 601), today exhibited in the Beyer Museum in Zurich. A a one-of-a-kind piece was made by Cottier for Patek Philippe in 1940, for one of their clients, a doctor in Paris. This was a World Time watch with chronograph and pulsometer. (see the Antiquorum October 1994 sale, lot 516). In 1946, at the request of a group of Genevan citizens who wanted to express their thanks to the Allies at the end of the Second World War, Louis Cottier produced four World Time dress watches for the Agassiz firm, with gold and enamel-decorated cases which were designed and made by Wenger. They were given to Winston Churcill, President Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and General De Gaulle (see lot 92 of Antiquorum’s October 14, 1990 sale). A World Time desk clock, also made by Cottier, was given to President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow. By the year 1946, his fame as an inventor and skil-lful watchmaker had won him many commissions. An ever-greater number of firms turned to him for complicated or out of the ordinary clocks and watches. At this time, he moved to the number 20 of the rue Ancienne in Carouge. There he continued his activities, while also continuing to take care of the Wilsdorf collection and to write many articles on horology and on his native city.
It was in 1950 that Cottier invented and realized what many people consider one of the most practical innovations of modern horology: the World Time system with two crowns. In addition to a greater security and precision in the choice and maintenance of the city of reference, it offered greater protection against shocks and wear on the bezel bearing the city names. The possibility of printing the city names rather than incising them, thanks to the protective glass, resulted in greater legibility. Louis Cottier invented and produced a few models of a watch with two dials and only one movement for Patek Philippe n 1954 . This solved the problem of synchronizing the minute hand, a problem which existed in twin-movement watches by other manu-facturers. In 1958 he made a linear hour watch for Patek Philippe. This model eliminated the use of hands and dial, as the passing time was indicated within two graduated openings on the case, the hour and minute indications being printed helicoidally on rollers. However, this model remained a prototype and was never produced. The Two Time Zone movement with two or three hands, developed along with the Patek Philippe engineers, may be counted among his most suc-cessful inventions. It was patented by the firm in 1959, no.340191 (see Antiquorum’s November 1999 sale, lot 527). After the creation of the Prix de la Ville de Geneve in 1959, Louis Cottier was responsible, along with Alfred Chapuis, for the organization of the famous exhibition “Montres & Bijoux”, which was devoted to automata. Ever active, brilliant but modest despite the tre-mendous reputation he had earned in the world of horology – at Patek, he was regarded as a sort of living legend – he remained faithful to his work-bench, where he continued to invent fantastic me-chanisms with his usual humility, mechanisms which even today provoke our wonder and admi-ration. Louis Cottier died on September 16, 1966 in Ca-rouge. His production totaled 455 movements for World Time pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks, produced at an average rate of 13 pieces per year. Only 179 of these are movements for pocket watches, sold by various firms, of which 17 have a central cloisonné enamel dial. One of the characteristics that make Louis Cottier’s World Time timepieces recognizable, whatever firm they were made for, is the unusual shape of the hands, particularly the hour hand. They were enti-rely hand-made and therefore give a unique cha-racter to each piece. This can be considered a sort of “signature” that sets Cottier’s pieces apart from all others. Chronology of Patek Philippe World Time Watches : Ref. 515
Ref. 542 HU
Ref. 96 HU,
Calatrava Ref 1415
Ref. 1416
Ref. 1415-1
No. 851416 Ref. 605 HU
Ref. 2523 and
Ref 2523\1 Ref. 5110
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