Innovation in motion, 350 years of coil spring

In 2025, it will be 350 years since Christiaan Huygens published the design of the regulating spiral spring. In 1675, this Dutch scientist changed the course of watchmaking history by revealing to the world a spiral spring that could combine precision and transportability in timepieces.

The exhibition by the Musée International d'Horlogerie (MIH) and the Haegsche Tijd Foundation (SHT) explores the origins, developments and various applications of this invention. It highlights how the spiral spring laid the foundation for modern timepieces and how it became a strategic part of the watchmaking industry. The balance spring indeed has a long life, but the question is, for how long?

The exhibition has a fair amount of Dutch input.

In addition to Dutch texts, four masterpieces from the Netherlands are also coming to the exhibition. Three clocks from the Zuylenburgh Collection by Bert Degenaar (Isaac Thuret, Salomon Coster and Pieter de Ruiter) and one by Hans van den Ende (Mathieu Marguerite).

The exhibition officially opens on Thursday 20 February and runs until 22 June 2025 at the MIH, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Open Tue-Sun, 10am-5pm.

See attached the flyer, poster and invitation to the vernissage.

L'innovation flyer

Poster

Invitation to vernissage

A Venduehuis filled with about 80 interested people!

Prior to the afternoon, Mr Kees van der Leer conducted a short walk for a select group along houses where the Huygens family lived. Following the introduction by chairman Joost Albers and an update "Huygens' Time Machine" by Theo Pronk, director of the Hidden City Foundation the lecture "Huygens, Saturn, and a career in 17th-century science" by Prof Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis

"Walking with Christiaan Huygens" by Tijmen Jan Moser and Enders Anthony Robinson (Springer 2024 edition, order via Springer website )

From Archimedes' Influence to Unsung Contributions in Modern Science

• Puts the contributions of Huygens to modern science in an up-to-date context
• Addresses the mystery why Huygens did not consider diffraction, although he had the unique tools to study it
• Highlights the importance of Huygens' principle for wave propagation in all branches

Huygens Time Machine launch

On 7 December was the launch of the Huygens' Tijdmachine, an important step in the realisation of this unique project.

After opening by Joost Albers (chair of the Haegsche Tijd Foundation), there were lectures by Serge ter Braak on the 17^e century Binnenhof and from Theo Pronk on the making process digital reconstructions

There was a great article on this by Marieke van Essen in The Telegraph of 8 January 2024. (c) 2024 De Telegraaf. Click to read this!

De Telegraaf_Verborgen_Stad_8_January_2024

The Antikythera Mechanism

Lustrum meeting of Haegsche Tijd Foundation

at Venduehuis in The Hague

Presentation chairman Joost Alberts, followed

by lecture of Prof. Dr. Rien van de Weijgaert

On the Antikythera mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism

A fascinating lecture by Prof Dr M.A.M. van de Weijgaert

At the Lustrum meeting of Haegsche Tijd Foundation

on 28 September at Venduehuis in The Hague

(See below explanation Dirk van Swinderen on Antikythera mechanism)

Flexous Mechanisms

Words of thanks from Joost Albers to CEO Nima Tolou and 

Head of Production Aleksandar Jovic