Sainte-Croix: The Beating Heart of Mechanical Art
The Jura balcony awakens under the March sun. Between sky and mountains, the village of Sainte-Croix and the l’Institut de la Mécanique d’Art (IMA), seem suspended in silence. Yet behind this tranquillity lies one of the most remarkable centres of mechanical art, also known as the automata, for the institute is home to the Association Mec-Art pour la Mécanique d’Art, which is also open to the public to further its mission to promote the craft of automata. “Watchmaking mechanics is industry – serial production. Mechanical art is about unique pieces, for which we use entirely different methods. Some brands focus exclusively on one or the other, while others operate at the crossroads of both – like De Bethune,” explains Denis Flageollet, the cofounder of De Bethune who founded the Association Mec-Art in 2016 together with François Junod and Nicolas Court, both automaton makers. IMA occupies the building originally constructed by Reuge in 2016, which was acquired by De Bethune in 2023. The building now hosts mechanical art activities for Reuge, Van Cleef & Arpels and De Bethune, as well as the Association Mec-Art. “Mechanical art depends on an ecosystem of artisans,” he adds, pointing to the uniquely concentrated geography of Sainte-Croix, “the only town where all these skills coexist.” François Junod agrees, “We live in a natural incubator. Here, everyone talks about mechanical art.” It is precisely for this reason that when Junod was invited to ...
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