At anytime in the last couple of centuries, if they were looking for a fine timepiece, the well-to-do anywhere in the world would likely be told… “try getting in touch with the Beyer’s of Zurich.” What an absolute honor that my family today was invited to visit with the remaining seventh generation Swiss watchmaker, René Beyer! His family’s store, Chronometrie Beyer, “the most famous watch store in Switzerland“ was founded in 1760. Here’s a little flash video from their website.
René Beyer a precious brother in the Lord and a walking encyclopedia about “time measurement systems.” And to have him give us an all-the-time-we wanted private tour of his personal clock and watch museum underneith his downtown Zurich store was a very special treat.
Over 500 priceless items that’ll blow your mind. The collection starts with an ancient Egyptian pot that has a hole in the bottom that drip outs water continuously – each mark on the inside of the pot denotes one hour. What I didn’t expect was the 90 minute download he gave us on everything from astromony, calendars, kings, empires, seedtime and harvest, wars, smuggling, gold, etc. etc. (Interesting… did you know the watchmakers guild in Zurich won’t admit Catholics into membership? It’s unreal that the Zwingli rejection of Catholicism is still so evident here 500 years later.)
I’ll spare you the fifty pictures we took and just show one for now.
René and I are in front of a clock known as a French mother and baby clock! Actually it’s the Pendulette Renaissance en forme de clocher dans un écrin en cuir or something like that. The “mother clock” below sets the baby clock above (which is a removable pocket watch during the day and rejoins mother at night.) I have totally butchered the sophistication of how this one clock below energizes and sets the other clock and the fifteen other mindblowing things it can figure out and do. This particular clock belonged to Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte the king of Spain. This clock alone is a whole blog post in itself. I think I got five sermon illustrations and a GIANT pro-life analogy from this clock alone. Even how he acquired it screams…. SPIRIT OF ADOPTION!
He sent me home with a full color book on his watches, his family, etc and I can’t wait to dive into it. I’ll probably post a few times on the theme of time – it’s a strong theme for me in this season… our time is in His hands, beginning and the end. That’s all for now.
More tomorrow on some Zwingli sites in Zurich – I’m now into the second Zwingli book I brought. This morning I had a major directional time with God that was launched by a extremely significant dream I had last night – if you follow my Twitter you know of that already. I’m convinced I’m in God’s time right now. If you feel as if you are out of God’s time right now in your life, reconnect with him asap and get back in sync. You don’t want to miss the moments he has for you.
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June 17, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Time is in His hands, beginning and the end | Adoption and Orphans Information
[...] More: Time is in His hands, beginning and the end [...]
June 18, 2009 at 9:08 am
Jared
Have you seen a swatch yet? I used to love those things! I guess that doesnt come close to what you saw at this watch shop!
June 18, 2009 at 11:18 am
Steve Hickey
Lots of Swatches here. And WE got the inside scoop on them – initially the “real” Swiss watch makers thought they were a joke, cheap, an embarrassment to “Swiss” watch reputation, etc. But they filled a market nitch the Swiss watch makers wouldn’t stoop to fill (inexpensive) and they now sell more Swatches than any other kind of watch many times over.
June 19, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I broke the tenth commandment today « Gate Post
[...] other things today we went back to Zurich to the Beyer watch store. It’s like there is a magnet drawing me there. Here’s a picture of the front of it [...]
June 20, 2009 at 11:09 pm
overall Cathy
I suppose you can’t bring back one of there army knives on the plane.
July 2, 2009 at 7:02 am
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[...] – banks, army knives and watches are huge things here. I’ve learned these are “time measurement systems.” I’ll get right to the point… as big and mind boggling as this huge clock is, it [...]
July 8, 2009 at 3:42 pm
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[...] fans enjoying these off-the-typical-topic posts of mine. If you are just joining us, welcome and here are some of the earlier clocks that have impressed me enough to receive a mention [...]
July 9, 2009 at 3:51 am
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[...] Herr René Beyer for making it possible for me to attend and for the english translation. You can read this if you are not aware of who he is as the seventh generation watchmaker here at the internationally [...]