Remembering René Beyer: much-loved proprietor of Beyer Chronometrie — the oldest watch retailer in the world

Muriel Zahn-Beyer describes her brother René as ein tausendsassa. The German phrase has no direct English translation, but it means something like ‘dancing in a thousand fields’.

‘He collected watches and was fascinated by coloured gems and porcelain,’ she explains. ‘He was a passionate beekeeper and loved trains and gastronomy. He would travel three days just to visit a restaurant he had been recommended. He didn’t mind — René had an infectious passion for beautiful things.’

In 1996, the eighth generation, René and Muriel, took over the operational management of the family business: Beyer Chronometrie, the oldest — and arguably the most extraordinary — watch retailer in the world.

Located at number 31 on Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich’s famous central boulevard, this ‘temple to timekeeping’ is home to spaces for selling fine new and vintage watches; traditional workshops and futuristic laboratories for a team of conservators, restorers and goldsmiths; and a private museum that contains several hundred historical clocks and watches.

In just over a year’s time, Beyer Chronometrie will have been at its current location for a century, having first moved to Switzerland from Germany in 1822. The company was founded in the German town of Donaueschingen by Matthäus Beyer back in 1760 — making it older than the United States.

René and his predecessors successfully navigated the firm through world wars, economic crashes and global pandemics. They also took care to safeguard the family’s illustrious ties to the industry.

For example, in 1956, Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf gifted René’s father Theodor a custom Day-Date, in appreciation of the fact that the store had agreed to stock his ‘oyster’, the world’s first water-resistant watch, back in 1932. Similarly, in 1888, Theodor’s grandfather, Adelrich Beyer, became one of the first retailers to sell IWC Schaffhausen watches — as a result of which, the store is now IWC’s oldest continuously operating retailer.

Beyer’s closest ties, however, lie with Patek Philippe. In 1842, just three years after Antoni Patek had made the company’s first pocket watch, Adelrich’s grandfather, Stephan, agreed to sell them. After the Stern family acquired Patek Philippe in 1932, this relationship became even more personal. ‘We’ve grown up with generations of the family Stern,’ explains his sister, who recently took over the business after René’s sudden passing in April, aged just 61.

‘As children we were always at their house in Geneva. I remember sitting on the lap of Henri Stern [the second generation of the family to own Patek Philippe]. He was always smoking a pipe, and I loved the smell of the tobacco.’

As an adult, René was particularly close to Thierry Stern, Henri’s grandson. Thierry apprenticed at Beyer Chronometrie, before joining his own family’s business in 1990, eventually becoming president. As a sign of their bond, in 2011 he agreed that René could open the first — and only — independent Patek Philippe boutique in Switzerland.

René was born in Zurich in 1963. His sister says that, as a schoolboy, he was more interested in the city’s articulated tram network than his studies. But fortunately, by his early teens, this fascination with the mechanics of cogs and levers translated into a watchmaking apprenticeship, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

‘Our father was a recognised expert on watches,’ says Muriel. ‘He read about watches. He studied them. He met other specialists for lunch to discuss them.’ In 1986, as Theodor’s health began to decline, René joined the company, taking over as managing director in 1996 at just 33, then as CEO and president in 2003.

René set about modernising the store’s appearance and adding a fine jewellery atelier. He also took responsibility for the museum, which had been opened in 1971 in the store’s basement by his father. ‘The laws in Zurich changed sometime around 1970. Before this, you couldn’t have sales areas in basements — even though you could let people work in them,’ explains Muriel. ‘So my father used this space to realise his dream of displaying his incredible collection to the public, and to educate people about the history of the measurement of time.’

The museum contains one of the most important collections of watches and clocks ever assembled. On display are some 300 rare and important sun dials, ancient water clocks, Renaissance table clocks, astronomical clocks, pendulum clocks, musical clocks, enamelled pocket watches, automata, chronometers, chronographs, tachymeters, tourbillons and perpetual calendars. There are pieces by Ferdinand Berthoud, Abraham-Louis Breguet and George Daniels. And nearly everything is kept running by a dedicated team of conservators, creating a symphony of ticks and chimes.

In 2018, watch bible Hodinkee made a short film with René at the museum, asking him to select some of his favourite pieces. They included a Rolex Oyster Perpetual worn by Edmund Hillary on his expedition to become the first person to ascend Mount Everest in 1953, and a gold facsimile of the Rolex Deep Sea Special that Jacques Piccard attached to the outside of his submersible Trieste when he became the first human to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960. The Hodinkee journalist said that visiting the museum was one of the most unforgettable moments of his life.

‘René always loved the museum. He grew up in it,’ says his sister, adding that he spent many hours organising loans, tours and special exhibitions. He also left his own mark on the collection: ‘He added a few things, but after the market exploded in the 1980s, it became increasingly unaffordable and difficult to find and purchase exceptional pieces.’ However, the collection continues to grow each year with the addition of new acquisitions.

The museum was also the impetus that drove Beyer Chronometrie to pioneer the market for vintage watches. ‘Back in the 1950s, my father would see a wonderful watch at auction, then buy it. If the piece was exceptional, he declared it would go in the museum. Two years later, he might find a similar watch for sale, but perhaps slightly better quality, or with a more technical complication, then buy that as well,’ says Muriel.

‘The first one would then go to the store to recoup some of the money,’ she continues. ‘And so, in 1965 we officially launched our “pre-loved” department, becoming probably the first retailer to sell very high-quality vintage watches.’

In 2010, Beyer Chronometrie celebrated its 250th anniversary. To mark the occasion, René published a special edition of the store’s magazine, Beyond. Among the features were an interview with Thierry Stern about the pair’s friendship, an account of how Theodor Beyer bequeathed Emperor Napoleon’s Breguet travelling clock to the Swiss National Museum, and a schnapps-fuelled photoshoot starring René and IWC’s former director, Hannes Pantli, fishing on a misty Rhine.

Alongside were a selection of autographs from the store’s ‘Golden Book’, including those of Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Princess Gina of Liechtenstein and Diego Maradona — who once bought eight watches from Beyer in the space of just 12 days.

René ‘loved forming relationships with people and was very outgoing’, says his sister — so he also threw a two-day-long party. ‘The first evening was a concert in Zurich’s town hall for friends and family and clients, organised in conjunction with the Stern family. On the second night, we held a dinner for 300 guests, inviting people from across our business and industry, as well as nearly all the representatives of the watch brands — people thought he was crazy,’ recalls Muriel.

‘These people simply didn’t talk to each other, and when they received the invitation they thought hard about whether to come. We weren’t sure if it would work. Now, they still communicate today because of René. It was amazing.’