One of the great bloopers in the history of the cinema is the statement in the Orson Wells movie “The Third Man” to the effect that the Swiss invented the cuckoo clock. For the record, that particular claim to fame is reserved for Germany’s Black Forest. What the Swiss did invent is the mechanical watch movement and the music box. The two are intimately related.

In 1865, a Swiss farmer and watchmaker by the name of Charles Reuge founded a company at Ste-Croix in the remote Swiss Jura Mountains of French-speaking western Switzerland, devoted to the construction of music boxes and related products. At first sight, it might seem incongruous that farming and watch and music box-making are related. But the Jura winter is a long and cold one, which spurred creativity on those short days and long nights many years ago.

Today, Reuge Music, as the company is called, is the premier manufacturer of Swiss music boxes that find appreciative buyers and collectors all over the world. This is quality work and a living tradition that is still based on traditional manual skills.

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