At the bar, guests sit beneath oysters. The giant ceiling lamps are not sea creatures: their shape is modelled on the landscape of the Jura. In wonder we cross the bar and settle into the late-summer shade outside, where sunbeams fall through the slats of the timber façade and dance across the floor in a play of light and shadow. The idyll of the Hôtel des Horlogers in Le Brassus (VD) is disturbed only by the traffic on the road. Over club sandwiches and welcome drinks, we ease into our stay.
A Small Grand Hotel
Earlier we had been given a tour of the four-star hotel. «What did you notice first?», asks the cheerful general manager, André Chemisade. On his wrist gleams an Audemars Piguet – it would remain the only visible clock in the hotel. In the lobby a tree trunk adorns the ceiling, the curved timber façade of the reception is a feast for the eyes, and the lounge holds books on every watch brand in the world. «Most guests are struck by the small frontage», says Chemisade. «Nobody believes we have 50 rooms here.» Indeed, the façade gives nothing away: the Danish Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the Lausanne practice CCHE built the rooms into the hillside – instead of stairs, long, gently sloping corridors. It opened in June 2022; a double room with breakfast starts at 270 francs, and a 38-square-metre suite costs 475 francs.
Natural Materials
Only natural materials were used – even the glue holding the carpets down is organic. The air is said to be cleaner than outside, even though you are in the Vallée de Joux; during construction, staff were even banned from wearing perfume so as not to spoil the optimal indoor climate, Chemisade recalls. Guests stay in Minergie-Eco-certified «nests», each beneath a tree. The site, by the way, has been cherished since well before the new building: as early as 1857 the Hôtel de France stood here; it burned down and was rebuilt. In 2002 Audemars Piguet acquired the house and gave it its present name.
A Liberating View
The tour continues through the rooms, whose floor-to-ceiling windows open the view across the slopes all the way to France. Behind the timber façade hide private terraces, some even with an outdoor whirlpool. Everything is geared to calm and the view – no wonder you look for bustle here as vainly as for clocks.
An Uneven Kitchen
The menu at the Gogant restaurant was created by the three-star chef Emmanuel Renaut; the cooking has a strong local grounding. The execution, however, is uneven: some dishes convince, others less so. Flawless, by contrast, is the breakfast with its house-made Bircher muesli. On balance, though, the picture holds together – a hotel with a clear signature, where time really does seem to stand still. That is exactly what the builders wanted: a timeless refuge in the heart of the watchmakers’ valley.
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/22 (November 2022).
