The air is stiflingly hot and there is an oppressive metallic smell that sticks to your throat and stings your eyes.
In a foundry with smoke-blackened walls, Alois Huguenin uses a giant ladle to pour molten bronze at 1,250 degrees Celsius (2,282 degrees Fahrenheit) into a metal form.
The century-old traditional foundry in La Chaux-de-Fonds in northwestern Switzerland is the birthplace of the country's renowned watchmaking industry and has been producing Olympic bells for three generations.
Bells will be rung in a variety of sports, including athletics, track cycling, mountain biking and boxing.
Nearly half a century after his grandfather made the first bell for the Moscow Olympics in 1980, Yugenin was preparing bells for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
“If everything goes well, it's three hours of work to ring one Olympic bell,” the 30-year-old, clad in an apron, gloves and protective gear, told AFP recently.
Huguenin said 38 bells had already been delivered to Paris at the request of Omega, the official Olympic timekeeper, which has a timing testing centre in Biel, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Paris.
“The bell is used to notify the athletes and spectators that the final lap has begun,” said Alan Zobrist, president of Omega Time, who is responsible for timekeeping across the Swatch Group.
He told AFP the rule told players “they have to do everything they can to reach the finish line as quickly as possible”.
Recalling that Omega has been responsible for timekeeping at the Olympic Games since 1932, he acknowledged that the bells constitute a “very traditional element”.
“Today, timekeeping is done electronically. The bells are a tribute to the past,” he said.
– “Pride” –
Ten minutes after pouring the molten bronze, which has the texture of volcanic lava and a bright orange-yellow colour, Huguenin is able to remove the thick liquid from the mould at a temperature of just 200°C.
He smashed the hammer hard, shattering the hard black sand mold inside the frame as smoke billowed out.
When the bell emerges it is covered in its outer skin, revealing that there is still work to be done – deburring, grinding, filing and polishing.
Huguenin created the first Olympic bell for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Huguenin said he's not as obsessed with Bell as some collectors are, but is proud that his work will be seen by billions of people.
“I put the same energy, the same passion into every bell I make,” he said, explaining that he also makes bells for farm animals and, increasingly, for personal events like weddings.
“But it is a source of pride to know that in our own small way we are taking part in this great celebration that is the Olympic Games.”
Huguenin said the Olympic bells have been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.
“Every time I watch TV, I try to see if I can find the bell,” he said, recalling keeping an eye out for his father's bells as a child.
And, “For the last few years I've been thinking about the bells I made.”
– “One step ahead” –
The bell used at each Olympic Games remains the same, only the edition logo changes.
They are always decorated with the colorful Olympic rings and are approximately 20 centimetres (7.9 in) high and 14 centimetres (5.5 in) wide.
But Huguenin insisted that each bell is unique thanks to the use of traditional techniques and recycling.
The clayey Paris sand he uses for his molds is not synthetic and has been reused many times, some of it as old as 100 years, he said.
The copper-tin alloy used in the bronze is made from independently sourced recycled materials.
A shelf near Eugenein's wooden workbench holds a memento collection of faulty bells from past Olympics in Atlanta, Rio and Athens.
But just weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics, he is already looking to the future.
Of course, a bell needs to be made for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, “but first there's the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in 2026,” he said.
“We're going to start this fall,” he said.
“I'm always one step ahead.”
Apo/Dutch/GV
