News This year Jaeger-LeCoultre, a major player in watchmaking history since the 19th century, is celebrating 180 years of continuous development around its founder’s original workshop. This anniversary will be commemorated by the introduction of some exceptional timepieces, as well as the holding of exclusive exhibitions and events around the world.
The adventure began in 1833 when self-taught watchmaker Antoine LeCoultre set up his own workshop after inventing a pinion-cutting machine. This invention was to be followed by dozens of others, as well as hundreds of patents, each of which contributed to forging the international reputation of Swiss watchmaking. The small workshop grew so fast that it was soon nicknamed the «Grande Maison» in the Vallée de Joux. By 1888, the Manufacture already employed around 500 watchmakers, technicians and artists.
Over the past 180 years, Jaeger-LeCoultre has created and produced well over 1,200 different calibres and filed more than 400 patents. The Grande Maison has a number of world firsts to its credit, along with superlative achievements and legendary watches such as the Reverso, the Duoplan, the Memovox, the Polaris, the Gyrotourbillon 1 and 2, the Duomètre line, as well as the perpetual Atmos clock.
The LeCoultre at the origin of Le Sentier village
Nothing about the Vallée de Joux apparently predestined it to become the worldwide centre of grand horological complications. Perched at an altitude of 1,000 metres far from any trade routes and surrounded by mountain passes often blocked by endless winters, the Vallée de Joux has one of the harshest climates of the entire Jura mountain region. These extreme conditions have significantly contributed to the development of the valley by stimulating the inventiveness of the men and women who settled there.
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s roots go back to the earliest records of life in the Vallée de Joux. From the 16th century onwards, the LeCoultre family was to play a pioneering role there. A Huguenot refugee having fled religious persecution in France, the well-read Pierre LeCoultre (circa 1530 - 1600) obtained the much-coveted status of «inhabitant» of the city of Geneva in 1558. Driven by a taste for adventure and new challenges, he left the city of Calvin the following year to acquire his own land in the Vallée de Joux: a plot covered in forests and home to bears and wolves. The charter he signed on this occasion was to leave an indelible imprint on regional history. Pierre LeCoultre undertook to clear the forest, build houses, grow cereal crops and raise animals. Despite countless obstacles and all manner of ups and downs, the small community gradually took root and began to spread out. Pierre LeCoultre’s son took the final step towards emancipation by building a church in 1612, marking the birth of the village of Le Sentier.
Inventor and founder of Jaeger-LeCoultre
Representing the tenth generation since the first LeCoultre settler in the Vallée de Joux, the founder of the manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre distinguished himself from an early age by his industrious and visionary character. Antoine LeCoultre (1803-1881) learned the mysteries of metallurgy in the small family forge in Le Sentier. Along with his father, he invented new alloys, perfected the vibrating blades of music boxes and laid the foundations of the razor-blade industry. His quest for progress and his determination to confront empirical knowledge with scientific erudition soon led him towards the noblest of the mechanical arts: watchmaking. In 1833, following the invention of the machine to cut watch pinions, Antoine LeCoultre founded in the Vallée de Joux the first workshop of what was to become the manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre.
From the small workshop to the «Grande Maison»
In 1866, the small workshop became the first full-fledged «Manufacture» in the Vallée de Joux. In an age when watchmaking skills were dispersed among several hundred small cottage-industry type set-ups, Antoine LeCoultre and his son Elie (1842-1917) played a pioneering role. Assembled under a single roof, men and women involved in the trade could thus for the very first time share their production secrets, mutually enrich their respective knowledge and generally pool their talents. By 1888, the enterprise already employed 500 people. Its creativity in the field of movements was quite simply prodigious. Between 1860 and 1900, it created over 350 different calibres!
When LeCoultre met Jaeger
In 1903, a rumour began circulating in the Swiss watch industry: the Paris-based watchmaker to the French Navy, Edmond Jaeger, was challenging Swiss manufacturers to develop and produce the ultra-thin movements that he had invented. Jacques-David LeCoultre, the founder’s grandson, was responsible for production at LeCoultre & Cie, and it was he who decided to take up the gauntlet. His ensuing cooperation and friendship with Edmond Jaeger were to give rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of ultra-thin watches, including the thinnest in the world, equipped with LeCoultre Calibre 145 (1.38 mm thick). These were soon followed by pioneering work in the field of wristwatches, and subsequently by the birth of the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand.
The first icons
Imbued with the art deco values, the 1920s and 1930s witnessed the emergence of the first Jaeger-LeCoultre icons. Just a few years elapsed between the successive introductions of the Duoplan watch (forerunner of the current Joaillerie 101 models) in 1925, the perpetual Atmos clock in 1928 and the ultra-famous Reverso watch in 1931.
In 1946, Jaeger-LeCoultre presented its first automatic calibre: Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 476. Ever since, the Manufacture has constantly innovated in this field with new features such as oscillating weight with buffers, others with a rotor or made of gold, unidirectional and later bidirectional winding, high frequencies, ceramic ball bearings, etc.
Equipped with functions that were particularly useful in daily life (alarm, automatic winding, time zones…), the post-war creations such as the Memovox, the Futurematic and the Geophysic have bequeathed their philosophy on the current Master Control line. Created in 1992, the latter marked a fundamental new step in the conquest of precision, since in order to deserve the title of «Master», each finished watch must emerge victorious from a stringent battery of tests performed for a complete 1,000 hours, meaning around six weeks!
The 21st century, a time of boundless creativity
Dominated by the spirit of invention, the first years of the 21st century are proving to be some of the most fertile in the entire history of the brand. No less than 75 new calibres were created, including Grandes Complications (tourbilons, minute repeaters, chronographs, perpetual calendars, 15-day power reserves, the first lubricant-free calibre, etc.) In parallel, over 80 patents have been filed to protect inventions relating both to movements and cases.
From ultra-complicated models to Haute Joaillerie creations and from complicated Atmos clocks to AMVOX, Master Compressor Diving, Reverso Squadra and the Duomètre watches, Jaeger-LeCoultre is steadily asserting itself as the reference in fine watchmaking. The 21st century also marks another crucial stage in the history of Jaeger-LeCoultre: the creation of the first Grande Complication wristwatches (housing at least three major complications in a watch): Gyrotourbillon 1, Reverso grande complication à triptyque, Memovix Tribute to Polaris or Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2.
The «Grande Maison»
For 180 years, decade after decade, in step with the new skills consistently incorporated within the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux, various buildings have been added, progressively extending around the original workshop of Antoine LeCoultre. Currently around 180 watchmaking skills are deployed under the manufactory’s roof. More than 1,300 employees work each day to create the brand’s exceptional timepieces. In this anniversary year, Jaeger-LeCoultre has also seen the arrival of a new CEO in the person of Daniel Riedo, who took up his post on 1st July. After spending more than twelve years with the Rolex group, he joined the brand in January 2011 in the capacity of Industrial Director.
180th anniversary celebrated in fitting style
To mark this anniversary, in January at the SIHH, Jaeger-LeCoultre unveiled the Jubilee collection featuring such outstanding timepieces as the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique QP Jubilee, the Master Ultrathin Jubilee, the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee and the Rendez-vous Celestial. Four grand complications that will leave their imprint on the history of the brand.
Throughout the year different events have been held to mark the jubilee, such as the production, in collaboration with Carmen Chaplin, of a short film entitled «A Time For Everything», which features three generations of women from the same family (Carmen, Patricia and Uma Chaplin) illustrating the idea of handing down, the passage of time and heritage. Also on the programme, an exhibition of exceptional timepieces in the display cabinets of Harrods department store in London, accompanied by workshops dedicated to the art of watchmaking. Some lucky people were even able to try their hand at assembling and disassembling a watch movement. A reconstruction of the original workshop of founder Antoine LeCoultre also brightened up this space. A further celebration of the firm’s 180th anniversary was the opening within the manufactory of the Maison d’Antoine, again in homage to Antoine LeCoultre. This warm space, complete with period furnishings, is set aside for friends of the brand and students taking introductory courses in horology. In addition, all the manufactory’s employees and a selection of team members from around the world took part in the festivities at a gala dinner for more than 1,300 people, under a marquee on the Le Sentier site. The high point of the evening was an appearance by the famous DJ Martin Solveig. And more recently, at the Venice Film Festival, a sumptuous gala evening entitled «The Sounds of Luxury Watchmaking» set the Jaeger-LeCoultre adventure to music with help from the Théâtre de la Fenice (details on page 21). On Swiss soil, the event was also celebrated at the beginning of September at the Veytay Polo Club, in the presence of actor Thierry Lhermitte.
September 23, 2013
