The Watchmaker's Final Lesson

In 1973, a Swiss watchmaker named Ernst Thomann closed his shop in Lucerne for the last time. He had spent fifty-one years crafting timepieces by hand — tourbillons, perpetual calendars, minute repeaters — each one a small masterpiece of precision. His watches sold to collectors in Geneva, London, and New York. He had chased perfection with tweezers and loupe, and by most measures, he had caught it.…