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25. Juni 2025 - Basel Watch Auction
It comes directly from the family heirs of Lucy Grossmann who was a pivotal figure in watchmaking, being the first woman to be admitted at the horological school of watchmakers in Switzerland.
Lucy Grossmann, like her father and grandfather, showed skills in mathematics and great manual dexterity from an early age. She was largely inspired by a prestigious family of Swiss watchmakers.
The town of Le Locle dedicated a square to his grandfather, Jules Grossmann, which now bears his name. It was on this square that Louis Gallet sculpted a bas-relief in his likeness in 1910, surrounded by his students.
Hermann Grossmann (1863-1928) father of Lucy Grossmann, followed in footsteps of his father, becoming a teacher and then
director of the Neuchâtel Watchmaking School from 1888 to 1928. Together, they wrote fundamental watchmaking books which were the basis of Lucy’s passion for watches.
Quite naturally, her father admitted her daughter as the first female student to attend the Watchmaking School he directed. She completed her entire apprenticeship there from 1908 to 1913, which culminated in a watchmaking diploma. Lucy was thus the first woman to obtain a watchmaking diploma in Switzerland.
“This is the first time that a young lady has attended a watchmaking school for five consecutive years for precision adjustment (…)” quotes from La Fédération Horlogère No. 74 on September 17, 1913
It was during her apprenticeship that she built a pocket chronometer from scratch, which was presented to the Neuchâtel Astronomical Observatory.
It received a first-class certificate. “(…) Miss Grossmann will be the first woman to have made, by hand, a complete pocket watch, a perfect chronometer, obtaining a first-class certificate from an Observatory like ours, essentially chronometric” quotes again La Fédération Horlogère No. 74 September 17, 1913.
These two watches, books and diploma are a testimony of Lucy Grossmann who can be considered as a pioneer in the watchmaking world. Even today it is not so often that women are at the forefront of watchmaking.
Lucy Grossmann
A set of two horological school watches and books, certificate from the Observatoire Astronomique and certificate from École de Mécanique et d’Horlogerie de la Ville de Neuchâtel (Suisse) which belonged to the first feminine figure in Swiss Watchmaking
The first ever 18k yellow gold keyless pocket chronometer made entirely by a woman which obtained a first-class certificate from the Observatory of Neuchâtel
Case: numbered 547, circular hinged case, snap-on cuvette with inscription engraved Ecole d’Horlogerie de Neuchâtel 1913
Dial: white enamel dial with Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds, outer minute track, signed Lucy Grossmann, Neuchâtel
Movement: mechanical with manual winding, gilt finished, lever escapement with balance spring, signed with inscription Ecole d’Horlogerie de Neuchâtel 1913
Dimensions: 51 mm
Weight: 110,2 g
Accessories: another miniature keyless pocket watch with enamel dial, gilt metal case with transparent case back, manual winding movement, nickel finished, signed on the dial Lucy Grossmann, Neuchâtel, an extract from original local newspaper dating back to 1913, one book by Jul. Grossmann and Herm. Grossmann Horlogerie Théorique, volume I and II, inside of them its handwritten A ma chère fille Lucy souvenir affectueux de son papa, leaflet on the life of Jules Grossmann, one certificate from Ecole d’Horlogerie de Neuchâtel, made for Lucy Grossmann stating that she spent 5 years and 4 months and obtained on 18th September 1913 her diploma, and finally the bulletin of Observatoire Astronomique de Neuchâtel (Suisse) stating that her pocket watch chronometer No. 547 obtained first class ranking in chronometry
CHF 4'000 – 6'000
Verkauft fürCHF 10'162
It comes directly from the family heirs of Lucy Grossmann who was a pivotal figure in watchmaking, being the first woman to be admitted at the horological school of watchmakers in Switzerland.
Lucy Grossmann, like her father and grandfather, showed skills in mathematics and great manual dexterity from an early age. She was largely inspired by a prestigious family of Swiss watchmakers.
The town of Le Locle dedicated a square to his grandfather, Jules Grossmann, which now bears his name. It was on this square that Louis Gallet sculpted a bas-relief in his likeness in 1910, surrounded by his students.
Hermann Grossmann (1863-1928) father of Lucy Grossmann, followed in footsteps of his father, becoming a teacher and then
director of the Neuchâtel Watchmaking School from 1888 to 1928. Together, they wrote fundamental watchmaking books which were the basis of Lucy’s passion for watches.
Quite naturally, her father admitted her daughter as the first female student to attend the Watchmaking School he directed. She completed her entire apprenticeship there from 1908 to 1913, which culminated in a watchmaking diploma. Lucy was thus the first woman to obtain a watchmaking diploma in Switzerland.
“This is the first time that a young lady has attended a watchmaking school for five consecutive years for precision adjustment (…)” quotes from La Fédération Horlogère No. 74 on September 17, 1913
It was during her apprenticeship that she built a pocket chronometer from scratch, which was presented to the Neuchâtel Astronomical Observatory.
It received a first-class certificate. “(…) Miss Grossmann will be the first woman to have made, by hand, a complete pocket watch, a perfect chronometer, obtaining a first-class certificate from an Observatory like ours, essentially chronometric” quotes again La Fédération Horlogère No. 74 September 17, 1913.
These two watches, books and diploma are a testimony of Lucy Grossmann who can be considered as a pioneer in the watchmaking world. Even today it is not so often that women are at the forefront of watchmaking.