Reuge

Since 1865, Reuge manufactures traditional music boxes, singing bird automatons and musical pocket watches by hand in the Swiss mountains – with carefully composed mechanical music movements.

This incredible and unique Manufacture not only proposes catalogue pieces but it’s artisans also customize and create bespoke pieces of Art.

It takes about 3 months to produce a REUGE piece of Art, and our craftsmen breathe life and soul into their creations at every step of their creative process. Many professional secrets, including highly specialised skills in the fabrication of music boxes, singing birds and pocket watches, must be mastered in order to create one of these fine creations. This unrivalled expertise is one of the unique secrets behind mechanical music.

The main manufacturing stages for the cylinder include drilling, pinning, lining and controlling; stamping, splitting, hardening, soldering, tuning and damping are those of the comb. Many other stages, such as arranging, assembling, fixing and encasing are required to produce the REUGE musical movements. Benefiting from the priceless legacy of music makers, REUGE musical movements are to this day manufactured according to an art dating back centuries. An infinite wealth of tunes, absolute machining precision and exceptional finely-finished parts are the hallmarks of REUGE musical movements.

Musical movements are elevated to the rank of “works of art” at the latest once they are set in their sumptuous cases, true resonance boxes. With their centuries of experience, box-makers select the finest quality wood based on scent, timbre and vibration. The woods are meticulously inspected for flaws and blemishes during the selection process. Knowledge passed on over generations is paramount in ensuring a quality sound in the boxes.

The centuries-old art of inlay requires noble skills that REUGE inlayers practise with both passion and rigour. This highly sophisticated and refined art form reproduces original musical themes, superbly replicated in these boxes that combine in subtle harmony the rarest of woods.