The Mozart Effect

Every watchmaker was once a child who dismantled a clock. The story is always the same. That should tell us something.

It is one of the most remarkable coincidences in the history of skilled labour. Across continents and decades, an extraordinary number of watchmakers appear to have had the same childhood. A watch is encountered. The watch is dismantled. A vocation is declared, usually before the age at which most children have settled on a favourite colour. The details…