The First Manufacture

How Jaeger-LeCoultre, one of the Swiss watch industry's most historically important players, came to be.

- Wei-Yu Wang

VALLÉE DE JOUX, nestled in the Jura mountains, is Switzerland at its postcard best: rolling farmland, cows and nearby peaks that promise ski ready snowfall. And it has watchmakers, of course. More than a few big names make their home here: Audemars Piguet, Breguet and Blancpain to name a few, as well as Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of the most established names in the watch industry, known especially for its movement prowess. The brand has always been at the village of Le Sentier, in the heart of Vallée de Joux. The manufacture building looms large and a closer inspection reveals it as a hodge-podge assemblage of various periods of architecture signs of success over the years as various expansions and additions were added over time.

The central building of modest sizing is Antoine LeCoultre's original atelier, which he built out of the family barn in 1833 as an ambitious 30-yearold. From a family of watchmakers, LeCoultre was intimately familiar with the craft - and apparently frustrated with the way things were being done. At the time, the various movement production disciplines were split up into one-man cottage workshop industries with little communication. By bringing these skills together under one roof, LeCoultre founded the first manufacture as we know the concept today.