Musée International d'Horlogerie, Canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland

5zenalf 5:00 PM Aug 11, 2016

For watch lovers and anyone who can appreciate mechanical genious
This museum has the most amazing collection of timepieces. If you like watches in general and appreciate the amazing mechanical work and ingeniousness that you will be able to see in these creations, go for it, you won't be disappointed. Do absolutely take the audio guide, it will provide lots of very interesting information, without it you will miss a lot. The smartphone app also does the job but the audio guide is definitely better. You can visit the place in many different ways, the collection in itself is already a thing of beauty and will keep many people happy in itself. The explanations on some specific pieces and on the measure of time will also be of interest. Finally the few interactive parts will save the day for your kids when they finally get bored watching so many items. There is no obvious and clear path through the museum, so you may want to build your own preferred experience by going through it once very fast and then deciding what the correct order is for you. For instance, if you want a timeline of different ways to measure time, it will be found on the first floor, after you have already seen lots of items and spent quite a lot of time with the question of time and astronomy. The happy news with this is that you may have to visit the museum more than once to really get everything out of it. It is not a very big museum, but it is very rich. So I would say that if you go very fast through it without paying much attention to the explanations and videos, you can do it in 1h30. There is no upper limit if you start paying attention, there are so many interesting things to see ... The museum has very clean toilets, a small cafeteria and a shop. Its location is convenient, an easy reach from the station or the centre of La Chaux de Fonds. If you come by car, the easiest option would be to park at the "Metropole" mall which is situated 300m from the museum. Parking there is cheap, safe, and you can ise the mall facilities for shopping or having a bite. It is well worth the visit, and even worth returning several times which I will definitely do. There is an offer right now for three museums in three days that allow you to visit two other museums in town with just one ticket. Enjoy the visit.

4CecilGgibley 5:00 PM Feb 25, 2020

Unique time museum
A unique collection of timepieces throughout the ages superbly presented. Before midday on Sunday entrance is free. Parking available too. When we went it was strangely empty which was a pity, perhaps more of an effort should be made to attract visitors