The former Master Watchmaker of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, Christian Lass today provides his services in the field of restoration, conservation and as an adviser to collectors an museums across the world. He is also a public speaker in the field of watchmaking. Making lectures and event where he shares his passion for horology.
Christian Lass is creating his own timepieces using inspiration and techniques from his long experience with restoring high end vintage timepieces.
The beginning
It was the book Watchmaking by George Daniels, that started it all.Christian Lass read this book in 2002 and it spoke directly to his heart. "That was all I had dreamed of," says Christian. Using my hands to create things and using my head to understand complex concepts is something I've always loved.
The book explains how to build a watch from scratch; The engineering skills and the degree of perfection needed in the craft are quite special.
He started at a local watchmaking school, but soon found out that what he learned there had more to do with servicing and restoring than building new watches. Fortunately, he studied at Søren Andersen, which according to Christian was the best workshop for the restoration of antique clocks and instruments.
Among other things, Søren Andersen was responsible for the maintenance of Jens Olsen's world clock, consisting of no less than 15,448 parts.
"My apprenticeship gave me the appetite of learning everything there is to know about watchmaking", says Christian. After the apprenticeship, he traveled to Switzerland, where he worked with Vianney Halter, one of the true masters of contemporary watchmaking.
Christian spent several years in Vianney Halters workshop, where he finally learned what he had always sought after. "The art of building watches".
The years of restoration of antique clocks and watches were in no way wasted. On the contrary, the expertise Christian acquired from Søren Andersen, together with experience with Vianney Halter paved the way for his later position at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Since 2009, Christian has been the watchmaker and restaurator of the museum's collection and has restored a large number of different watches from the best watchmakers over the past 500 years.
Thanks.