Montre à Tact In the Parisien Society at the close of the 18th century it was very impolite during a conversation to take out a pocket watch and glance at the dial to read the time. A.L. Breguet decided to end this misery and in 1796 developed his "montre à tact" or the "tactful" watch. His watch had protruding hour markers and could be touched within the pocket to "feel" the time. Walter Haselberger and Svend Andersen developed their version of a tactful watch for the modern gentleman. It allows one to read time in a discrete manner without an impolite twist of the wrist. Svend Andersen Born in 1942 in Denmark, Andersen is called the "Watchmaker of the Impossible". With a diploma from the Danish Watchmaker School, part of the Royal Technological Institute of Copenhagen, in 1963 he went to Switzerland to learn how the best watches were produced. Working for Gübelin for several years, in 1969 he joined Patek Philippe's "Atelier of Complications" under the famous Max Berney, who had more than 45 years of experience with the company. In 1979 Andersen finally set up his own workshop, and has created since then high quality, unusual and complicated timepieces. In 1984, together with Vincent Calabrese, he founded the AHCI, or Academie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (Horological Academy of Independant Creators), an institution uniting more than 20 of the most ingenious independent watchmakers. The AHCI displays every year at the Basel Fair and its members are often the creative force behind the exceptional creations of the famous watch and clock manufacturers.