Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is a proud sponsor of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), one of the most influential horological associations in the world. The Horological Society of New York is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the art and science of horology through education, and Phillips is thrilled to once again host the organization's annual charity auction, with all proceeds going toward supporting the HSNY's goals.
– Questions by Logan Baker
The Horological Society of New York is growing in remarkable ways. The non-profit organization is hosting more events, raising more money to support young watchmakers, and continuing to expand their philanthropic footprint in a thoughtful and meaningful fashion. One of the HSNY's most impactful recent developments occurred last summer, when the Jost Bürgi Research Library was officially unveiled. This massive extension of the HSNY's existing library and resources came via donation from a single collector, a Swiss-born, New Jersey-based man named Fortunat Mueller-Maerki.
Mueller-Maerki has spent his entire life collecting watches, clocks, and horological reference materials from all over the world. His library, while still growing, was up to nearly 25,000 items at the time of donation, including books, journals and rare ephemera in many languages. He also created a comprehensive database and catalog of horological publications. Mueller-Maerki donated his library with the intent of making it available to the largest number of interested people possible. Mueller-Maerki decided to honor Jost Bürgi (1552-1632) in officially naming the library. this little-known Swiss clockmaker, mathematician, and astronomer also served as an engineer in the court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.
In order to maintain, develop, and promote the new library, the HSNY hired a full-time librarian last year. Dr. Miranda Marraccini, 32, moved to New York to join the Horological Society of New York and dive headfirst into Mueller-Maerki's remarkable collection. She's who you'll speak with if you schedule a research appointment, or who you'll meet if you happen to stumble into the Jost Bürgi Research Library when it's open (Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET).
With the official kick-off of the 2023 HSNY Charity Auction, we recently spoke with Dr. Marraccini to learn more about the library and her work – all of which is supported by your donations.
Phillips: You joined the HSNY as their librarian last summer – how has the experience been so far?
Dr. Miranda Marraccini: It's been great. I've been here just about one year. I have a PhD and come from an academic background; I was working in the University of Michigan library for three years before coming here. It's been interesting to transition from a huge library that serves a university to a smaller, more specialized library where I'm more in charge. I've really enjoyed that. I also get to do a more varied array of things. I get to work with rare books, I'm able to write materials for our website, and I get to work with researchers and our visitors. I've really enjoyed that aspect of it, just working with such an interesting collection and being able to do so many different types of things.
Were you always interested in watches? What was your relationship with watchmaking like before joining the HSNY?
I would say I was interested in it, I wouldn't have called myself knowledgeable, but I always enjoyed watches. I owned a few vintage watches before I started, including a 1920s watch with a mechanical movement that I really enjoyed wearing. I also collect things like fountain pens, so I think I had things in common with people who often also like watches. But I wasn't particularly looking for a job that was horologically related. I was looking for an interesting collection that I could really grow with and work with and be passionate about. I've already learned so much from working here.
How has that relationship evolved since starting the job?
I always appreciated and liked watches as something to collect and from an aesthetic perspective, but I understand them technically much better now. I understand how they come apart and get put back together. It's not just theoritical now – I've taken [the HSNY's] Horology 101 class, so I now understand on a practical level how they work, which has added a lot to my ability to help researchers and collectors.
I also really appreciate how watches touch so many aspects of human culture, which I now understand better just because our library is so broad. We have books about automata and even jukeboxes, all kinds of things that can be connected to the way we've measured and told time through history.
What does your average workday at the library look like?
I work weekdays at the library, which is in this historic building in Manhattan. We get a lot of tourists that come in off the street and I'll give them a tour. And then I have research appointments – people coming to research specific topics, academics, auction house specialists, novelists, journalists, all sorts of people really. I help them find things in our collection that will be helpful to them. I also spend a lot of time either writing about our collection online to highlight what we have to people who aren't here in New York.
I'm also still processing the collection. We have a catalog that we're constantly updating, but it doesn't have everything in the collection yet. So I'm still working on that and sorting out materials as we speak.
What makes the HSNY library different from other horological research centers or libraries?
I'm confident that we have many items that exist nowhere else in the world. I think that our collection of periodicals is probably one of the most complete. It's not just the American and British ones, but periodicals from all over the world. If you're looking for a reason why our library is unique, our rare book selection is pretty great. We have materials dating back to 1652. We also have a lot of really important chronological and astronomical kind of rare books, um, that you would, it would be hard to find in one place elsewhere.
Are you actively acquiring new items?
Yes. There are limits in the amount of space we have, so I'm not trying to grow the library drastically at this point, but I'm still keeping an eye out for anything important, I also buy new titles that come out.
I'm always really interested in finding handwritten manuscripts. We have a collection of students' workbooks and notes from watchmaking classes from all sorts of different eras. The way they were able to copy these precise diagrams and write out all the details of the technical things they needed to know and the equations they needed to know in order to actually make the parts of a watch. I'm always looking for things like that, things that show the human experience in watchmaking.
If a collector or journalist comes to visit the library, what would you recommend they look at? Where should they start?
It really depends on their interests. People are welcome to come to the library without an appointment when it's open, but if there's something that you're specifically interested in, I definitely encourage people to either make a research appointment, which they can do on our library website, or to just email me directly, which they're more than welcome to do. I can pull some materials that might be helpful and relevant to them to make their visit the most useful. There are no restrictions on people looking at and photographing materials, and I'm always happy to show people rare books as well.
What does the future look like for your role and the HSNY library? Is there a long term road map?
I definitely want to keep growing, not only our collection, but also the usage of the library. I've had a couple of college level classes come in, and MFA classes, and I would love to have more school involvement, even younger kids. We actually do have a children's book collection.
And we do want to have part of the collection available as a lending library. We get a lot of questions about that from our members, and that's definitely something that's in the five year plan. We would love to have a subset of the collection that people can borrow. We're also working on digitizing some materials as well.
You can explore the rest of the HSNY 2023 Charity Auction, right here.
You can plan your visit to the Jost Bürgi Research Library right here.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About The Horological Society Of New York
Founded in 1866, the Horological Society of New York (HSNY) is one of the oldest continuously operating horological associations in the world. Today, HSNY is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the art and science of horology through education. Members are a diverse mix of watchmakers, clockmakers, executives, journalists, auctioneers, historians, salespeople and collectors, reflecting the rich nature of horology in New York City.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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