Museum für Uhren und mechanische Musikinstrumente, Technology museum in Oberhofen am Thunersee, Switzerland.
The Museum für Uhren und mechanische Musikinstrumente displays timepieces and mechanical music makers spanning five centuries of technical progress. The exhibition fills rooms with stone walls, where each piece reflects the craftsmanship and precision of its era.
The museum preserves a collection spanning roughly 300 years of Bernese watchmaking craft and documents how technical methods evolved from simple to more precise mechanical systems. The objects show the steps people took to measure time more accurately as knowledge grew.
The collection reveals how mechanical craftsmanship shaped Swiss identity and the role these devices played in people's lives across different eras. You see techniques that craftsmen perfected and passed down through generations.
The museum is open May through October, Tuesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 17:00, with guided tours available by reservation outside regular hours. Visitors should expect stairs and uneven floors in the older rooms, so comfortable shoes are a good idea.
During guided demonstrations, visitors hear antique mechanical instruments playing live, revealing sounds that bring these machines to life in a way still photographs cannot capture. This sensory experience shows how ingenious the engineering actually was.
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