MIH. 50 Years of a Monumental Showcase

Through models, furniture and timepieces from the Museum's collection, as well as contributions from other contemporaries, the exhibition aims to illustrate the mindset in which the MIH was conceived and to tell the story of the encounter between watchmaking, museology and architecture.

A video installation juxtaposes historical and contemporary images of the museum and initiates a dialogue with the architect Bernard Tschumi and the director of the Acm, Salvatore Aprea. Their contributions focus on the architectural and conceptual challenges that guided the development of the building and shed light on the challenges and choices that characterised the project. The installation is complemented by large illuminated panels showing reproductions of the architects' drawings, which are kept at the Acm in the Georges-Jacques Haefeli collection.

The building

Designed and drawn by Pierre Zoelly and Georges-Jacques Haefeli, the building of the Musée international d'horlogerie is largely underground. This choice serves two purposes: to preserve the aesthetics of the museum park and to adapt to the harsh Jura climate by regulating the temperature naturally, which is essential for the conservation of the pieces.

The use of concrete as the dominant material aims to combine pragmatism and aesthetics. The prefabricated arches, each weighing up to two tonnes and supporting the park above, and the reinforced concrete beams are not just structural elements. They are also the expression of a rough and imposing aesthetic will that contrasts and dialogues with the airy and transparent museography created by the Team BTG association of Pierre Bataillard, Serge Tcherdyne and Mario Gallopini.

The archives

The Georges-Jacques Haefeli collection, held at the Acm, contains the drawings of the MIH project. Acquired in 2010, the collection spans the period from 1960 to 2008 and consists of some 220 rolls of plans, mainly technical archives in the form of drawings on paper and tracing paper. It documents important projects, projects and competitions directed by Haefeli, including works such as the University City of Neuchâtel and the International Red Cross Museum in Geneva. The files relating to the International Horological Museum contain numerous drawings by Pierre Zoelly, with whom Haefeli collaborated during the competition.
This competition, open to architects residing or practising in the canton of Neuchâtel and extended to a selection of Swiss architects, was organised in 1968 to provide La Chaux-de-Fonds with a watchmaking museum capable of housing a vast collection of time-measuring instruments. At the time, such an initiative was a response to the challenges posed by the changes in the watchmaking industry, with an increase in production, the advent of innovative technologies and the use of new materials, leading to changes in aesthetic and technological paradigms.
Of the twenty-eight proposals received, nine were selected for further evaluation. The "Gnomon" project by Zoelly and Haefeli won the first prize and the building, whose construction began in 1972 in collaboration with the civil engineer Pierre Beurret and the construction company Paci, was opened to the public on 19 October 1974. An example of Brutalist architecture, it was awarded the Béton Prize in 1977 and the Cembureau Prize in 1978. In the same year, it was named European Museum of the Year.