Night sundial

N°1

This watch has two qualities never found on others: it can’t move forward, and it can even justify being late when you get home (you didn’t see the time go by). The principle of operation is simple: enter a bistro, order a beer and staple the ticket on the nail placed on the dial. Now you can tell what time it is just by looking at the ticket. If, after a while, you think it is late, order another beer quickly and you will be on time.

Before

After

“the Valaisan watch

“This piece, the most insignificant of all those I have ever made, had a very special destiny. It was made in three minutes at a time when I was making steel damask watches, which took a week to make. Made as a joke, put on the website and instantly forgotten. 5 years later, in July 2008, some acquaintances told me about it, without knowing that it was mine. A quick search showed that someone had mentioned it in June 2008 as a “Valaisan watch” and that it was then picked up by thousands of different sites. By June 2009, it was still mentioned on 2890 different websites.”

As time went by, this watch was renamed “Alsatian watch”, “Chti watch”, “Belgian watch” “Breton watch” “Irish wristwatch”… Strangely enough, many Nordic and Slavic websites talk about it, while the Latins are hardly touched: this could cheerfully make me the most translated Valaisan author in the world! Video extracts of this watch told in more than 70 different languages…

N°2 (private collection J.C. Biver)

N°3 “expecta solem et videbis hora

Third version of the night sundial for everyday use. It is waterproof, safe and light. Safe because it is no longer a nail that staples the bistro tickets but a spring: no more risk of getting hurt. Practical, because it has an anti-return valve that prevents the tickets from escaping.