Wednesday, January 15, 1997

Beyer Jewelers & Museum Celebrating 250 Years In Business: Zurich, Switzerland [Part 1 of 5]


[Part 1 of 5]


This is an amazing story about the oldest and most respected jewelry store in the world. Since its founding in 1760, Beyer has been passed down from father to son for seven generations, and each generation has been fully trained as a watchmaker.


Beyer is celebrating its 250th Anniversary In 2010!!!!

That's right, I said 250th Anniversary, which is a quarter of a Millennium!!! Just to put that into perspective, The United States did not even exist 250 years ago in 1760. Good things–as they say–endure!!!

Beyer CEO Rene Beyer is pictured above

Beyer sells 14 premiere watch brands including Patek Phillipe, Rolex, Cartier, Breget, A Lange & Sohn, IWC, Chopard, GP, Jaeger Le Coultre, Jaquet Droz, Piaget, Hublot, Brietling and Baume & Mercier. Beyer also sells beautiful ladies jewelry and they also make their own watches and jewelry which they sell under the Beyer label.

In this story we are going to explore three topics. First we are going to walk through the incredible history of Beyer; then we are going to explore the store itself, and then we are going to examine the Beyer Museum which is located in the same building as the Beyer Jewelry Store in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Beyer Museum maintains one of the greatest horological collections collections in the world, which includes some of the most historically significant Rolex watches, including Sir Edmund Hillary's Oyster Perpetual he wore when he conquered Mount Everest in 1953.

The Beyer Museum is filled with historical horological treasures and even owns one of the original 7 prototype Rolex DEEP-SEA Special watches that set the all-time dive record in 1960 while attached to the U.S. Navy Bathyscaph Trieste when it went down 7 miles to the lowest point on the ocean floor.


One of the exciting features we are working on adding to Jake's Rolex World Magazine is an international guide to some of the top watch, jewelry and horological museums in the world. This travel guide gives you a preview of what to expect and allows you to make travel plans to some of the most beautiful and interesting travel destinations in the world.

I could not be more excited to take you on a tour of Beyer in Zurich, Switzerland. First let's take a look at Zurich, Switzerland itself. Zurich is an extremely romantic travel destination, and in winter, Zurich becomes a winter wonderland, with amazing shopping, opera, food, and museums. Zurich is also close to St. Moritz and Gstadd which are great skiing and snowboarding destinations.

Zurich, Switzerland proper has a population of 360,000 people and the area surrounding Zurich, there are a total of 2 Million people.



Zurich, Switzerland In The Summer

Zurich, Switzerland summers are renowned for being beautiful as we see in the photo below. Switzerland in general is known for being an extremely clean and pristine country. Zurich has a great deal of amazing architecture and there are still many buildings in old Zurich from the 16th century.


Beyer Chronometrie AG is located in the heart of downtown Zurich, Switzerland at Bahnhofstrasse 31 - 8001, and is easily accessible from all parts of Zurich by tram. If you are not familiar with Zurich, it is located in northern Switzerland, closest to Germany.

Zurich is located close to Basel, Switzerland, so if you are attending Baselworld, you could easily continue on to Zurich. Geneva, conversely is located is south-west Switzerland near the border of France.

The photo below is of the front of the Beyer Chronometrie Store, and the Beyer Horological Museum is located on the same premise, on a lower level.



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