Le Castel's wall clock collection combines the tradition of the clock making industry and the "savoir-faire" of craftsmen from the Swiss Jura mountains.

The cabinet work is made entierly of natural wood, either pear or lime. The legs and mouldings are carved by hand.

The decorative metalwork is cast in bronze "cire perdue" and the marquetry models are made especially for the Le Castel Collection.

The hammered gold leafed decoration is perfectly polished with an agate stone by the best gilt craftsmen using a technique handed down over three centuries. Certain decorative features are unique to the Le Castel models.

The decorative natural flowers, in monochrome, and the special subjects are painted entirely by hand (no transfers or copies) with oil paints.

For certain models, notably the popular "Jeanjaquet" model, the decoration in monochrome is standard. However, the artist uses memory, creativity and his imagination to create an unique design. Some of the enamel face dials are heat-treated.

The Le Castel 8-day chiming movements are high-precision mechanisms from the Swiss clock making industry. Assembled and controlled by Le Castel, each movement is numbered and recorded.

Manufacturing process

                    

In a fine haze of sawdust, the cabinet maker leans over his block of lime wood, shaping the cabinet to regain its initial purity thanks to the rough edge of his saw and the loving incisions of his chisel. This is a gesture repeated a thousand times over and which, when completed, is one that lends shape to time by housing it noble wood.

The watchmaker permits the clock to follow the movement of time, regulated by the mechanical movements that are manufactured and that will affront the hours of history that punctuate the rhythm of nature.

The special skills of the craftsmen who apply the lacquer and the enamel add the desired grace to the body of the clock, which will have undergone some four hundred operations before it is finished.

The gilder, with meticulous attention to detail, applies fragile gold leaf to the places where the wood has been carved and prepared for this by the application of a paste made of natural ingredients. Once smoothed by the agate head, these leaves give the gold its special lustre, burnished to its full yet sober splendour by the light entering the workshop.

Now it is the turn of the painter, who decorates the clock, applying the colours of the seasons, flowers and the motifs that provide the same richness to the cabinet as notes of music in a blank page

 

         

Our products are available in different colours and with different décors.

On request, we personalise your model by using specific motifs or subjects (coats of arms, décors taken from photographs, etc.).

Personalised models require approximately 5 months.