Musée d’horlogerie du Locle – Château des Monts

About the museum

The Le Locle watch museum is housed in the Château des Monts, an 18th-century building above the town. The founding was prompted by the collector Maurice Sandoz, an heir to a pharmaceutical company, who donated 35 pieces to his home town. His example led other collectors such as Henri Jeanmaire and Frédéric Savoye to contribute their collections.

The museum is spread over three floors: the ground floor deals with the history of Le Locle, the first floor with private watch collections, and the top floor with time from a philosophical perspective. The Maurice-Yves-Sandoz Room shows mechanical works of art and automata, including the «Fée Carabosse», a 19th-century English automaton made for parlour entertainment.

In the Alfred-Huguenin Room, Neuchâtel pendulum clocks of the 18th and 19th centuries can be seen with hand-painted watercolours by Alfred Huguenin himself, also in the «queue de vache» style. The exhibition «Les Temps de la Montre» tells 500 years of watchmaking in eight display cases, and rare watches from the time of the French Revolution show the unusual decimal time with ten hours per day.

Highlights

• Automata in the Maurice-Yves-Sandoz Room, including «La Fée Carabosse»
• Neuchâtel pendulum clocks with watercolours by Alfred Huguenin
• «Les Temps de la Montre»: 500 years of watchmaking in eight display cases
• Watches from the Revolutionary period with the ten-hour day
• 18th-century building, Château des Monts

Permanent exhibitions

• Les Temps de la Montre – 500 years of watch technology in eight display cases explaining the mechanisms and individual components.
• Automaten und Pendulen – Mechanical works of art and automata from the Sandoz collection as well as Neuchâtel pendulum clocks of the 18th and 19th centuries with hand-painted watercolours.

Admission & discounts

Free admission at numerous events and for school classes, members of AG Culturel, museum associations and ICOM/VMS, journalists, and with the Neuchâtel museum card, Swiss Travel System, Raiffeisen Plus, Swiss Museum Pass and Neuchâtel Tourist Card.

Accessibility

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Hands-on workshops and games for children: music boxes and singing birds (from age 4, 30–45 minutes, CHF 5), making a wall clock (from 5, CHF 10), building a Neuchâtel pendulum clock (from 5, CHF 20), pocket watch calendar (from 6, CHF 20), watchmaker investigation (from 6, CHF 10) and the detective game «Meurtre au château» (from 10, 4–18 people). Free activity booklets in French and German as well as a search-and-find game in two levels of difficulty.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

For groups, coffee with croissants, regional dishes at the Café des Mines (including ham cooked in asphalt) and wine tastings at the Château des Monts can be arranged.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit