Jean-Claude Sabrier

Expert in watchmaking, Jean-Claude Sabrier works from 1960 to 1980 as consultant to the Musée des Arts et Techniques at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, as well as for the museums of Evreux, Rouen, Toulouse, Tours, Blois and the Time Museum (Rockford, Illinois, USA).
He is also a corresponding member of the Scientific Council of the Institut l’Homme et le Temps.
Author and coauthor of numerous articles in academic journals, he participated in organizing numerous exhibitions.
From 1980 he organized in France the first sales specialized on the theme of the collection watches and in 1988 he is one of the directors of Antiquorum in Geneva, being the main author of the auction catalogs for watches, clocks and regulators.
In 1994 his book « La longitude en mer à l’heure de Louis Berthoud et Henri Motel », is crowned by the Académie de Marine. In 1997 he received the Gaïa Price.
In August 2000, Jean-Claude Sabrier leaves Antiquorum to become a consultant of the Swatch Group for its historical, artistic and cultural heritage and a consultant to Mr Nicolas Hayek for purchases of watches for his museums.
Co-author with Georges Rigot of « Steel Time » in 2004, illustrating the influence on watchmaking of the twenty-five first years of the industrial era, Jean-Claude Sabrier reveals today, through the work of Jacques Frédéric Houriet, the fundamental role played by Switzerland in the production and trade of watches of the late eighteenth century and the development of the Chronométrie as well as the Marine watchmaking during the first third of the nineteenth century.

Interview:

1- What does the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève represent for you?
2- Why did you agree to be jury member?
3- What makes in your opinion the value of a watch?

1. It seems to me that the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve is currently the only international award that crowns annually high-end watches that are the most innovative in both design and technically.

2. This is also why I agreed to be a member of the jury, because I think the jury is representative of key specialists, journalists and actors on the art market, in the field of the watches of exception.

3. The originality at all costs is certainly not to me the decisive factor in the value of a watch that is essentially based on quality, aesthetics, reliability and above all convenience of use, while reflecting the personality of its creator. That is why a watch has to be identifiable without the need to look at the brand.