The house in which the Saarland Clock Museum is located was built around 1820 on the site of the former sheep farm of Bucherbach Castle. It is a South-West-German House, in which all the rooms necessary for a farm are under one roof with a continuous ridge. Since the entrance to the farmhouse is on the long side, such a house is also called a transverse house. It is called watchmaker's house because from 1820 to 1985 a son of the Franz family (formerly Frantz) ran a watchmaker's workshop with a shop.
The 1992 extension houses the office, the museum shop and the museum's toilets.
Franz family
As was customary in the past, the watchmaking craft was passed on from father to son:
1710 – 1750 Johann Peter Frantz
1744 – after 1788 Johann Peter Frantz
1785 – 1845 Johann Samuel Frantz
1818 – 1896 Johann Peter Frantz
1862 – 1944 Peter Christian Franz
1904 – 1985 Otto Wilhelm Franz
The job title changed from blacksmith and watchmaker to farmer and watchmaker to watchmaker. In the picture you can see Otto Franz as he usually received visitors in the kitchen.
Auguste Franz
Auguste is the last member of the Franz family to live in Uhrmacher's house. Otto and Auguste signed over the house to the city of Püttlingen in exchange for a life annuity. After Auguste died in 1988, the Circle of Friends of Old Watchmaking e. V. was founded so that the Saarland Watch Museum could be opened on November 6, 1992.
The picture shows Auguste as the older Püttlingers still know her, standing in the two-part door to have a chat with passers-by.
The Garden
In front of the house is “Auguste’s Farm Garden”, which was named after the last resident of the house, Auguste Franz. The garden is maintained in the style of a cottage garden from the second half of the 19th century by the Unemployed Self-Help Püttlingen e.V. Adjoining it is the museum's sundial garden.
The sundial garden part 1
1: Decoratively designed equatorial sundial made of steel with an unfolded dial (VIII - XII - IV)
2: Simple sundial
3: Decorative sundial in the stylized form of an armillary sphere
Manufacturer: Jindra in Weiten (Austria) around 2000
(You can find out about the accuracy of sundials on the monitor in the elementary clock room.)
The sundial garden part 2
4: Equatorial sundial with 24 meridians on a concrete ball, an hour band (24 hours) made of brass and the polar axis and time bracket made of stainless steel. With this watch you have to take action yourself and adjust the bracket so that its shadow is thinnest.
5: In contrast to a normal sundial, this clock can be read from the north. As a joke, it is also known as the "official sundial". To save lighting, a "Comptoir" often had windows facing south.
Manufacturer: Jindra in Weiten (Austria) around 2000
(You can find out about the accuracy of sundials on the monitor in the elementary clock room.)
