In Memoriam: Fortunat Mueller-Maerki (1946-2026)
Fortunat Mueller-Maerki at the grand opening of the Horological Society of New York’s Jost Bürgi Library, 2022
The Horological Society of New York (HSNY) was saddened to hear of the passing of Fortunat Mueller-Maerki on Monday, June 1. Fortunat had been an active member of the horological community for decades, was a prominent contributor to the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC), and amassed a world-class horological library that he later donated to HSNY.
Fortunat was born in Switzerland in 1946 and developed a love for clocks and watches at a young age. As a student at the University of Zurich, Fortunat was living with his grandfather when the latter inherited a 300-year-old table clock and had it restored, introducing Fortunat to the field of horology and clock collecting.
His passion developed slowly while he pursued a full life outside of horology: an exchange student program in Pennsylvania that was his first experience in the U.S., college in Switzerland, then married life in an apartment in the schoolhouse where his wife Ruth worked as a teacher.
After receiving a master's degree in economics from the University of Bern, Fortunat embarked on a three-month tour across the U.S. in a Volkswagen camper before enrolling at Harvard Business School. He graduated in 1975 with a master's degree in business administration and began a 25-year career at a groundbreaking executive search firm, Egon Zehnder, “the only employer I ever had,” as he used to say. He and Ruth had three children.
He joined the NAWCC around the same time as he started his life in the United States. There, he took clock repair classes and became fascinated by the history of timekeeping. He also began to build his collection in new directions. “I have a collector's gene in me,” he said in 2022. “I had dozens of clocks from all over the world.”
As time passed, he continued to collect clocks but also began to amass publications on horology with a broad scope incorporating all aspects of time and timekeeping: physics, philosophy, astronomy, and fiction included. Fortunat, a lifelong bibliophile and a member of the Grolier Club, was very practical. Print publications were more affordable than watches and required less space than clocks – for him, it was very important that “you [could] get more items on the shelf!” Even so, his collection quickly filled his home in New Jersey.
As he built his private book collection, Fortunat continued to give back to the NAWCC by adding publications to their library, and in 2018, the NAWCC's library was renamed in his honor. In 2021, with the aim of making his collection accessible to as many people as possible, Fortunat donated his personal library and archival holdings to HSNY. This donation became the core of the Jost Bürgi Research Library. In choosing the name for the library, he decided to honor Jost Bürgi (1552-1632), a brilliant Swiss clockmaker, mathematician, and astronomer.
Throughout his life in horology, Fortunat was a leader in the NAWCC, including as head of the NAWCC Library Collections Committee, NAWCC Board member, and Silver Star Fellow (their highest honor). His prolific writings about horology are an important scholarly resource, including over 200 articles in the NAWCC Bulletin on diverse topics: longcase clocks, astronomical dials, and how watches were used to identify the dead during World War I. He also organized many study tours of horological sites of interest across Europe and America.
Fortunat often called himself a “hoarder,” though in reality, he was a meticulous bibliographer, cataloger, and subject specialist. He collected ephemera that would not otherwise have been preserved, such as brochures from swap meets, email newsletters, postcards, advertisements, and syllabi from watchmaking schools. His collecting philosophy was always focused on preserving material that would otherwise be vulnerable to loss or destruction.
He assembled, with great care, a truly unique and comprehensive archive of modern horology. Fortunat’s collection numbered nearly 25,000 items at the time of donation, including books, journals, and rare material in many languages. His library will remain a functional legacy and a living testament to his irrepressible spirit.
At HSNY, Fortunat was known as Librarian Emeritus. His friends here will always remember his taste for Diet Coke and chocolate, his kindness, and his booming laugh. On frequent visits to the library, he was thrilled to welcome visitors and chat about his experiences in horology, introducing them to highlights of the collection and making everyone feel truly at home. His zest for life was always evident, and his sense of mischief remained intact even in his later days. He will be missed.