Passing Time at the Beyer Uhrenmuseum

Let’s start with the good:

Non-German speakers can get a tablet with translations of all the displays, along with pictures and sometimes videos of the pieces.

The first two sections covering some of the earliest time pieces and movement clocks were very interesting and had great descriptions and videos.

I was utterly fascinated. There were so many cool objects. I tried writing about how they look and move but it was too hard to convey the elegance and beauty in this small blog post. Just astounding!

Now for the not-so-good:

After the first two sections there are almost no more videos of how the pieces look in action. Many of the clocks are still working but the videos helped show the action more closely, the descriptions also got a lot shorter and became quite technical.

In the last sections there were some videos available but several of them them were not working on the tablet. It was a roller coaster of emotions to going from utterly thrilled and amazed to bored.

Further, the single-room exhibit is plain, and the harsh lighting does the room no favors. I felt almost like I was in my grandma’s spare room storage space, and not surrounded by priceless antiques and artifacts.

For this reason I can only give this museum 3 snacks, because in some ways it was great, but in others there is a lot of room for improvement.

It’s just strange for a company to spend multiple millions of francs to collect these treasures to then put them in such an underwhelming space with a lackluster tablet guide.

It’s not like Beyer doesn’t have the capacity either—you have to pass through the store in order to get to the museum, and the retail section looks great.

If you love technology, clocks, and engineering, this could be a wonderful way to spend an hour or two. If not, there’s other cool stuff to do in Zurich.

I should note the museum does have happy hour tours with champagne for 10CHF every now and then (even in English) and this might be a more fun and educational experience.

I would be open to going again and checking that out, and seeing if a charismatic guide can change my mind about the museum. For other interested readers, you can check out the museum with a virtual tour on its website online: https://visit.museum-virtuell.com/de/tour/uhrenmuseum?play=1