The MIH Gaïa Series III, and a Special Guilloché 50th Anniversary Edition

The MIH, or Musée International d’Horlogerie (International Watchmaking Museum), is a must-see for anyone interested in the history of horology. This institution gathers a museum, a restoration workshop, and a research centre, and houses a vast collection of about 10,000 conserved objects. The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the MIH’s residence in its current building, a semi-underground structure designed to securely house the watchmaking heritage and blend in with the local architecture of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Celebrating this milestone, the International Watchmaking Museum is unveiling two new creations: the revised MIH Gaïa Series III watch and a special 50th anniversary edition featuring 50 unique dials, hand-guilloché by Georges Brodbeck, winner of the 2023 Gaïa Prize.

The MIH Watch collection, whether we’re talking about the inaugural minimalistic annual calendar chronograph of 2005 done by Ludwig Oechslin and Paul Gerber, or the more recent Gaïa Watch presented in 2019, is full of meaning for watch enthusiasts. If you want to talk about niche, true independent watchmaking, here’s the right place. Here, we’re not talking about brands and marketing, but about watchmaking history, the museum’s legacy and funding preservation and promotion efforts for the collections housed by the MIH. Everything in these watches is a celebration of horology, a collaborative project that gathers some renowned suppliers and manufacturers from the region of La Chaux-de-Fonds, that is inspired by the local environment and the architecture of the MIH, a watch developed within the MIH restoration workshop.

Following the now rather famous annual calendar chronograph watch, the International Watchmaking Museum introduced the MIH Gaïa Watch in 2019, as a celebration of the Gaïa Prize, an award presented to individuals from the industry (artisans, historians, researchers, and scientists), a symbol of recognition by industry peers. A second series of the MIH Gaïa Watch was presented in 2021, this time with a black dial. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its current (and quite fascinating) building, the Musée International d’Horlogerie presents the revised MIH Gaïa Series III watch and a special 50th anniversary edition, with a hand-made guilloché silver dial.

Like previous editions of this commemorative watch, the MIH Gaïa Series III is an original, rather brutalist take on watchmaking, with a display combining two discs – one central for the minutes, one in an arch for the hours. The overall shape is deeply inspired by the place where it was conceived, a concrete-based building with an underground structure blending curves and straight lines – and as such inspired by Le Corbusier, born in the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. For the occasion of the Series III, the 39mm steel case (done by Stila SA) has been slightly revised by Xavier Perrenoud (designer of the two previous versions) with new lugs that sit closer to the strap for a more compact feel.

While the rest of the case remains almost identical, as so does the display with a rotating minute disc in the centre and hours displayed by a trailing disc in an arched window, the Gaïa Series III inaugurates a new dial design. A new blue colour has been chosen, and done by ALD-coating (made by Positive Coating), with a geometric pattern consisting of parallel and perpendicular lines that evoke the brutalist design of the MIH building. The pattern is here obtained by laser engraving.

The MIH Gaïa 50th Anniversary Edition is a bit more special in its execution. Inspired by the Ensō – a circle in Japanese Zen Buddhism that draws attention to the void it defines – the dial is here made from solid silver with a hand-guilloche pattern done by Georges Brodbeck, the winner of the 2023 Gaïa Prize and a guillochage specialist since the 1990s. The silver surface is coated with an anti-tarnish treatment, making sure that the contrasting textures between the smooth dial surface and the raw guilloché patterns will remain untouched.

All watches are delivered with a responsible and ethical apple leather strap (by Brasport SA) closed by a signed pin buckle with the museum’s geographical coordinates (made by Cornu & Cie SA). The original display of the MIH Gaïa Series III is still powered by an automatic Sellita SW400-1. The movement’s oscillating weight is partially visible through the caseback with “Musée International d’Horlogerie” engraving.

Available online starting from September 19th, 2023 at www.montremih.ch, but also available for purchase at the MIH shop, the MIH Gaïa Series III and the MIH Gaïa 50th Anniversary are respectively limited to 100 and 50 pieces, which each watch associated with an original, numbered, and signed serigraphy by Xavier Perrenoud. The price is set at CHF 3,400 (excluding tax) for the MIH Gaïa Series III and CHF 5,500 (excluding tax) for the special 50th anniversary series.

More details at montremih.ch.