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 […]
The annual calendar is a relatively young ‘complication’ and was first used in a wristwatch by Patek Philippe in 1996. It’s the less complicated sibling of the perpetual calendar and only requires one calendar adjustment every year. Today we’re looking at the ‘less complicated’ combination of a calendar mechanism and a chronograph. So not the esteemed combination of a perpetual calendar and a chronograph, but the combination of an annual calendar and a chronograph and there are actually only a handful combining these two complications.
Fly under the radar. This could be the motto of the first generation MIH Watch that was developed by none other than Ludwig Oechslin and Paul Gerber. Christian Gafner, an industrial designer who never before designed a watch, has to be credited for the ‘fly-under-the-radar’ design that goes together so well with what’s under the ‘hood’. The MIH Watch served as a fundraiser for the Musée International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, where Ludwig Oechslin was the conservator and was sold in a newspaper!
The abbreviation MIH probably doesn’t mean much to most of our readers, except to the hard-core watch enthusiasts (or WIS, which stands for Watch Idiot Savant – another horologocal abbreviation) immediately recognize it. MIH stands for Musee International d’Horlogerie and during the time that mr. Ludwig Oechslin was curator of the museum, he introduced the MIH Watch. Portion of the proceed go to the museum and fund special restoration projects. And now there’s a new MIH Watch called the MIH Gaïa Watch.