The Masis Collection is one of the most comprehensive privately owned assemblages of pocket watches in the world. Focusing on the watch as a work of art, it encompasses over four hundred years of the watchmaker’s, enameller’s, and goldsmith’s craft. Featuring some of the earliest surviving portable timepieces, the collection includes watches that can be considered among the greatest European miniature works of art ever created. A lush and diverse collection, it is particularly rich in examples of gloriously painted Geneva enamels, particularly those of the Huaud family working in the Baroque period. Its strength also lies in the breathtakingly beautiful enamel watches made for export to China and Turkey in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Written by renowned watch specialist Richard Chadwick, A Voyage Through Time takes the reader on a journey through the development of the mechanical watch, showing how the artistic progression of watch case decoration moved hand in hand with the styles of larger European artistic movements. Lavishly illustrated with more than two hundred full-color images, the book is a rich exploration of masterpieces in watchmaking through the centuries.