Urban development around Saint Amour Square dates back to 1864-1865. The square, which is a small garden in the centre of a block of buildings intended for use by the residents, is an invention that comes from England. Saint Amour Square was the first of its kind built in Besançon. No. 7, Square Saint-Amour is a building that serves as a backdrop to the garden.

In 1864, the architect who designed rue de Lorraine, Gustave Vieille, built this tall building for the Savoye Brothers who were important watch and clock merchants. The building was designed to serve several functions: shops were on the ground floor; the apartments at the front, overlooking the square, were homes for the managers and owners, and the watch-making workshops occupied the rest of the building. In all, there were eight apartments and eight workshops. The outside tells you about the inside: the facade giving onto the square is richly decorated and resembles a bourgeois apartment building. Walk around to the side and from the first floor up, the big casement windows, wider than they are high, and their simple design, let you know, “Here, there were workshops.”

And between 1897 and 1904, it is here that the watch that until 1989 was the most complicated in the world, was built for a wealthy Portuguese collector. It was acquired by purchase in 1956 and is on display at the Museum of Time.

! The plaque and the QR code are located in Saint Amour Square, on the rue Proudhon side.