Cities / Biel/Bienne
Switzerland
Biel/Bienne: Two languages, one lake and the watch that saved an industry.
Biel is the bilingual city where Swiss watchmaking industrialised. A historian walks the old town of the prince bishops, the factories of Omega and Rolex, the crisis of the 1970s and the Swatch of 1983, and the shore where the Jura water correction reshaped the lake.
The timeline the walk follows
Under the prince bishop of Basel, on the shore of the lake.
Biel joins the Confederation after the Congress of Vienna.
Louis Brandt’s workshop; the watch city begins.
The lake level drops; the Seeland becomes farmland.
A plastic watch answers the quartz crisis.
Themes
Choose one, or name your own.
Two hours covers one theme well. Three hours links two.
- Watch city: Omega, Rolex, Swatch
- Bilingual Biel: how two languages share a town
- Old town and the prince bishops
- The Jura water correction, 1868 to 1891
- Lake shore and the prehistoric pile dwellings
Private walk
Your group only, your questions, your pace.
Group walk
Schools, companies, cruise and coach groups. Larger groups split.
Your theme
A period, a person, a family story. We find the historian who knows it.
Led by
A historian from Biel/Bienne, from LocalBini’s vetted network
Meeting point
Central, confirmed in your booking email
Not included
Entry tickets to monuments and museums
Questions
About Biel/Bienne.
German or French?
Both, and the historian can switch. Ask for one if your group prefers.
Can the walk include a watch manufacture?
Some open for visits by arrangement. Tell us in the form and we ask.
Cancellation?
Free cancellation up to 7 days before the walk. Within 7 days the walk is non refundable, since the historian has reserved the time. We reschedule for severe weather at no cost.
Walk Biel/Bienne with a historian.
Date, time, length and theme. We reply within a day and confirm your historian within two to three.