This is for those who are crazy about watches! But not only. “Ore Italiani. Orologi storici dalla collezione Del Vecchio” presents to the public a selection of Italian watches traced, preserved, and studied by Gian Carlo Del Vecchio (1918-2016) but is also an immersion in history.
In 60 years of activity, Del Vecchio has built a collection with over three hundred objects from which sixty masterpieces created between the 15th and the beginning of the 19th century are on display.
To better define the context of time measurement in Italy, the exhibition also includes tools for knowing the time designed before the spread of the mechanical clock. Also on display are some tools used by master watchmakers to create their masterpieces.
Time for history
There are many stories communicated by the watches on display. They range from the first clocks for religious communities – the so-called “monastic alarm clocks” – to the complex mechanisms of astronomical clocks. Many objects are of refined workmanship, with inlays in semiprecious stones and ivory, or embellished by the work of famous cabinetmakers, as is the case of two nocturnal clocks mentioned among the assets registered in Palazzo Pitti upon the death of Ferdinando Maria de’ Medici in 1713.
The historic watches on display are not only beautiful and significant from the production of some of the most renowned Italian makers. They offer an important testimony about the human obsession with measuring and controlling time and the mixture of the history of the watches themselves and the technological progress achieved with their creation.
The exhibition is accompanied by two specially designed educational workshops, which will be held by experts in watchmaking and time measurement: These are the appointments: 30 July, 27 August, 17 September with: “The time machine. Clocks between wheels and springs”, edited by Andrea Palmieri. On 3 and 10 September, 8 October: “Sundials and sundials: In search of true time”, curated by Stefano Barbolini.
Participation in the workshops costs €3.00 in addition to the entrance ticket. For information and reservations: info@museogalileo.it – 055 265311 (Monday-Friday 9 am-6 pm).
You can visit “Ore italiane. Orologi storici dalla collezione Del Vecchio” until October 2023.