I visited that museum, I saw those beautiful pieces and I can say it was a good experience. Unfortunately, on September 14 a group of thieves broke into the Ulysse Nardin museum in Le Locle and stole a bunch of watches.
These pieces are some models that money cannot buy, because they are one of a kind and Ulysse Nardin kept them as living proof of their own long history.
The interesting part is the fact that this is not the first time happening, actually it’s the second time in five weeks, which makes me think that there is an organized group that targets watch companies. And if you think about it, stealing a watch is the perfect thing to steal, hard to trace, easy to sell (I presume) and not so hard to carry around.
I am very fond of that museum because it was the place where I fell in love with Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur watch, a model that I reviewed recently.
What exactly happened at the Ulysse Nardin Museum?
According to the Neuchatel police and the prosecutor’s office, several people forced their way into the manufacture building, which is located at 3 Rue du Jardin at 3 AM. I can tell that this building is not just a random office, but the historic heart of Ulysse Nardin, home to the beautiful museum that I visited a couple of years ago. There is also the place where artisans do things like miniature enamel painting for the models like Freak S Enamel , the academy where the watchmakers are trained and the metiers d’art workshops.
Intruders broke the open display cases inside the museum and stole several timepieces before disappearing without a trace.
The alarm system worked, it was triggered but nobody caught them anyway. A private security firm was sent to check it out, but the people from the security firm couldn’t find where the break-in actually happened, so nothing got flagged as urgent.
An hour had passed until someone realized that in fact watches from display were missing , so you can Imagine that by that time the thieves were long gone. Only after they saw the watches missing did the police be called. One hour, and nobody saw the watches missing. This sounds a little fishy to me, but I’m not a detective.
Investigators are now trying how this was possible, a triggered alarm and no one noticing anything for an hour.
Ulysse Nardin museum robbery was confirmed by the company in the same day and said no staff partners were hurt, which is the most important thing in this story.
Watches that are missing
From my understanding the inventory is still in process after the Ulysse Nardin museum robbery, so we don’t have a total count or a total value. But the guys from Ulysse Nardin has confirmed three of the missing pieces by name, and these are some important watches.
- A pocket watch from 1860 built with a twin barrel movement and an eight day power reserve that still has the original Grand Feu enamel dial.
- The last pocket watch made by Ulysse Nardin, which was produced in 1927, it has a minute repeater, chronograph, perpetual calendar and a moon phase all packed in a 18 carat gold hunter case
- Genghis Khan, from 2002, a limited edition of just 30 pieces. Ulysse Nardin said that it was the first watch in the world that combined a tourbillon, a minute repeater, a Westminster carillon and Jaquemart automata figures, all inside a manually wound caliber called UN-78.
Jaquemart automata means little mechanical figures that move and strike the hours, like a tiny show put together in a watch case. It’s the type of complications that requires a lot of time to be made and a team of specialists that would spend years to get it done perfectly. That’s why there are only 30 of them.
Patrick Pruniaux, CEO and chairman of Sowind Group, the company that owns Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux, stated that these watches matter for reasons that go beyond what they could get on at auction.
But heir history continues either way with watches and collaborations like the model UR-Freak.
Two museums from Le Locle robbed in 5 weeks
Back on August 9, a separate museum, just down the road, The Musee d’horologerie at the Chateau des Monts, was robbed in the same way. Four men, masked and with gloves, entered the museum by forcing the door, got into the exhibition room and stole some watches that are valued at almost 100.000 Swiss francs,
Apparently, French authorities placed five men from Lyon under investigation over multiple break-ins in Switzerland and they are the primary suspects in the Chateau des Monts robbery. The same group is also being investigated from a burglary at the Musee Jacques Chirac in France.
This doesn’t mean the same group hit Ulysse Nardin too, and I don’t want to guess either, but the real fact is that there is a group, or multiple ones, that target valuable watches. Police have been pretty clear that there is no confirmed connection between the two Le Locle cases so far.
The sad part is that a town built on 180 years of watchmaking heritage was hit two times by robbers in just a little over a month. So let’s hope other museums or watch manufacturers tightened their security.
| Watch | Year | Key Details | Complications | Case Material | Production |
| Pocket watch | 1860 | Original Grand Feu enamel dial | Twin-barrel movement, 8-day power reserve | Not specified | Unique historic piece |
| Pocket watch | 1927 | Last pocket watch made by Ulysse Nardin | Minute repeater, chronograph, perpetual calendar, moon phase | 18-carat gold hunter case | Unique historic piece |
| Genghis Khan (final example) | 2002 | Caliber UN-78, manual winding | Tourbillon, minute repeater, Westminster carillon, Jaquemart automata | Not specified | Limited edition of 30 |
And I will leave this sad story with a bit of trivia, just to forget a little about the Ulysse Nardin museum robbery: the very first astronomical regulator that Ulysse Nardin’s founder built to test his own work is not even kept at this museum. It lives at the Musée d’horlogerie du Locle, the same museum that got robbed back in August. Small world, and right now, not a very safe one for Le Locle’s watch history.
Photos from this article, except for the last pocket watch they made, are taken by me while visiting their museum.
