Chouriet Montres SA

Go to Chouriet's website and you learn Emile Chouriet was a watchmaker around the early 1700's. He died around 1735 and the workshop continued on until 1800. Then, the website says any trace of the company was lost around 1800. That's it. There's nothing to tell you how it came about from 1800 to the present. Very strange.

The address I have brings me to a seven-story office/apartment building in Geneva's city center. As you can see in the accompanying photo, immediately to the right of the building's entrance is a grocery store and to the left, an exterior display of Chouriet watches. However, there's no store--just the four glass displays.

The entrance door to the building is locked so I repeatedly ring the buzzer to Chouriet's fifth floor office. No answer. Another tenant is going into the building so I follow him in the door. I ask the man if he speaks English and if he's heard of Chouriet Montres. The man says he lives right across the hall and goes on to say no one is ever there except maybe once a week.

Hmm, what am I doing wasting my time here. You'd think whoever owns the company would want some exposure and respond to the letter of introduction I sent a month earlier and try to set-up a time to meet. Then again, maybe this mysterious company doesn't want anybody to know anything about them