Six years ago I started collecting glossaries around the field of watchmaking. I regularly go on holiday and then bring French, German, English and or Spanish watch magazines, which are sometimes difficult to read without a dictionary. But a dictionary does not always help with the specific hourly working terms.

I found several lexicons, dictionaries and glossaries on various sites and libraries, but they were usually in two or three languages, always French, German and / or English. Books like Brittens “ Handbook ”, Berners “ Dictionaire professionel ” or Mauch’s “ Horologists Lexikon ” naturally do not contain Dutch. There are only a few lists in which the Dutch translation can also be found. Zeeman’s “ Clock lexicon ” contains over 1200 words in four languages, but that is only a fraction of the 4000 in Berner or the 14000 mentioned in Osterhausens Dictionaire de Horlogerie.

This is not just about watch parts. In the various existing lists, no distinction is made between parts, tools, professions and operations. The names of materials, raw materials and brands are also sometimes included at random.

Jaap Zeeman, who presents the Klokkenlexicon in 2003, wrote it like this:

“ The professional language of watchmaker and experts who write about timepieces turns out to be a poorly recorded language…..In addition, most publications are in French, German, English or Spanish….. Incidentally, it would be enlightening if “ experts ” could decide to define the “ Official Dutch watch terms. ”

Inquiries at the watch box school in Schoonhoven resulted in such a thing not yet being done. That is why I took the initiative to make such a list. Over the past six years, more than 2,000 hours have been spent collecting, merging and cleaning up a large number of existing lists of books, official sites of Swiss – and German watch industry and glossaries of the various watch magazines and fan sites.