Several intruders broke into the Ulysse Nardin manufacture in Le Locle at around 3 a.m. on September 14, forced open display cases in its museum and left with several collection timepieces, according to a joint statement from the Neuchâtel cantonal police and the public prosecutor's office carried by the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA.
Photo: Ulysse Nardin
Photo: Ulysse Nardin
Photo: Ulysse Nardin
An alarm triggered a response from a private security firm, but the point of entry was not found on that first visit. The theft was confirmed about an hour later, and police were notified only then. According to investigators, establishing why the break-in went undetected is part of the inquiry. A duty prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation.
Ulysse Nardin confirmed the burglary the same day and said no employees or partners were harmed. The thieves took historic timepieces the company calls exceptionally rare, several of which mark turning points in its watchmaking since 1846. The museum is still compiling its inventory, and police said the value of the haul had not yet been determined.
Ulysse Nardin also announced the theft on its official Instagram account, @ulyssenardinofficial, where it published images of pieces taken from the museum.
The building at 3 Rue du Jardin is the company's historic manufacture. Besides the museum it holds the métiers d'art workshops, including miniature painting, and the academy where Ulysse Nardin trains watchmakers.
Patrick Pruniaux, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Sowind Group, which owns Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux, said in the statement: "The significance of these timepieces extends far beyond their rarity or monetary value. They embody an uninterrupted history dating back to 1846 and the work of generations of watchmakers, inventors and artisans who, for 180 years, have helped advance watchmaking."
The company named three of the missing pieces. One is an 1860 pocket watch powered by a twin-barrel movement with an eight-day power reserve, featuring its original Grand Feu enamel dial. Another is the last pocket watch produced in 1927, which combines a minute repeater, chronograph, perpetual calendar and moon-phase display in an 18-carat gold hunter case.
The third is the final Genghis Khan from 2002, which Ulysse Nardin describes as the first watch in the world to combine a tourbillon, minute repeater, Westminster carillon and Jaquemart automata, produced in a limited edition of 30. Auction records list the manual-winding caliber UN-78.
It is the second break-in at a Le Locle watch museum in just over five weeks. On August 9, according to the cantonal press release issued that morning, four masked and gloved men forced the north door of the Musée d'horlogerie du Locle at the Château des Monts, entered two exhibition rooms, broke the glass domes covering the clocks and left with fewer than ten heritage clocks in under five minutes, fleeing toward France. Le Temps reported that authorities valued the stolen clocks at under 100,000 Swiss francs, about $122,000.
Photo: Ulysse Nardin
Photo: Ulysse Nardin
Five men from Lyon have since been placed under formal investigation over burglaries in Switzerland and are suspected of involvement in the Château des Monts theft, according to the Lyon prosecutor's office, which is also examining their possible role in the August 6 burglary of the Musée Jacques Chirac in Corrèze. Georges-André Lozouet, a spokesman for the Neuchâtel cantonal police, said in August that the center of that investigation lay in France.
Ulysse Nardin says the astronomical regulator the founder acquired in his first years in business, which let him test his own work under laboratory conditions, is held today at the Musée d'horlogerie du Locle.
Neuchâtel police have appealed for witnesses who saw suspicious people, vehicles or behavior in Le Locle between 2 and 4 a.m. on September 14, on +41 32 889 90 00.
