About a year ago, a new institution appeared on the museum map of Moscow – the Museum of Time and Clocks. It was organized by the AllTime company, the largest federal chain of jewelry and watch stores, and the Watch Heritage Foundation with the support of the National Association of Watchmakers and the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives.
This is not an ordinary museum. Firstly, it works for free, secondly, it occupies an entire floor of the AllTime store on Rusakovskaya Street, and thirdly, excursions there are conducted by collectors themselves, owners of rare exhibits exhibited for public viewing.
“This is one of the few scientific and technical museums in Europe, where not only more than 3 thousand historical exhibits are presented, most of which are related to the formation and development of watchmaking in our country, but also there is a watch library, master classes on watchmaking are organized for children (classes for adults will begin soon). This is a platform where modern European watchmakers can introduce visitors to their work completely free of charge,” explains Leonid Evropeytsev, president of the European Watch Collectors Club and founder of the museum.
After reconstruction, the exhibition space of the Museum of Time and Clocks has almost doubled, and now the exhibits are located on an area of 500 square meters. m. Here you can see watches manufactured in 1794 by the factory of Peter Nordstein – one of the first watch productions established by decree of Catherine II, and models of the trading houses of Pavel Bure, Henry Moser, William Gabu.
The pre-revolutionary history of watchmaking in Europe is continued by the part dedicated to the Soviet watch industry (1920s – 1991). The museum stands display the products of the main Soviet watch factories: Polet, Slava, Raketa, Vostok, Zarya, Chaika, Molniya, Agat, ZiM, Elektronika. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions.
Until November 1, the museum will host the “Precious Time” exhibition, which includes more than 80 pocket and wrist watches made of precious metals, enamel and stones. Among the exhibits are works by brilliant 18th-century masters Jean-Antoine Lepine, Julien Le Roy, Philippe Randell and historical creations of modern manufactories Breguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet.
Another important initiative of the Museum of Time and Watches is support for the national competition “Best European Watches – 2023”, which was held for the second time this year. The winners in ten categories were determined by popular vote on the website watchaward.ru; starting this year, a professional jury joined it. And most importantly, you can see all the competition models with your own eyes.
“In 2022, the competition website was visited by more than 60 thousand people. This is great, but many asked if it was possible to see the watches live, and this year such an opportunity appeared thanks to the AllTime company, the general sponsor of the competition, and the Museum of Time and Watches, where the exhibition of competitive models was located,” says the founder of the competition, Vyacheslav Medvedev.
The Grand Prix of the competition was won by the Racer Retro watch, Anton Suhanov. The winners in various categories were Lady Bauhaus watches, Colibrica design (“Women’s watches”); 5-ChM “Shark”, “Neptune” (“Interior clock”); “The Master and Margarita”, Anton Yaitsky (“Master and Ideas”); “Sputnik-1”, “Rocket” (“European Mechanics”).
