One of the main players in the history of the creation of Swiss luxury watches, the Jaeger-LeCoultre company has managed to find the perfect balance between nature and culture, tradition and innovation, rapid development of production and careful attitude to the environment, international recognition and preservation of the national character of its products for more than 180 years of its existence.
The history of Jaeger-LeCoultre began in 1833, when the talented self-taught watchmaker Antoine LeCoultre opened a small watch workshop. By that time, the Swiss genius already had, perhaps, one of his main inventions – a machine for making watch gears, which was soon followed by a dozen other innovative solutions, and then a hundred different patents, each of which further strengthened the unshakable fame of the Swiss as a true master of his craft. The small watchmaking workshop in the Vallée de Joux grew so quickly that the Swiss themselves nicknamed it “la Grande Maison” (French for “Big House”). By 1888, the company employed about 500 watchmakers, engineers and designers.
Over the 180 years of its existence, the workshops of the Grande Maison have created more than 1,200 different calibers and filed about 400 patent applications. The company’s watch collection includes many world premieres, including true legends of the watchmaking world: the Reverso, Duoplan, Memovox, Polaris, Gyrotourbillon 1 and Gyrotourbillon 2, Duomètre and the unique Atmos table clock, the mechanism of which is charged by temperature fluctuations.
Even in the first years of the manufacture’s existence, the creative potential of the craftsmen of the Grande Maison was simply stunning. Between 1860 and 1900, the manufactory produced more than 350 different calibers, half of which contained various complications: 99 repeaters (66 of which were minute repeaters), 128 chronographs, 33 calibers that combined a chronograph and a repeater into one. At the end of the 19th century, the company began producing so-called grand complications, i.e. watches whose mechanism was equipped with three traditional complications at once: a perpetual calendar, a chronograph, and a minute repeater.
The First Legends of Jaeger-LeCoultre
In the 20s and 30s, when the Art Deco style was at the peak of its popularity, Jaeger-LeCoultre models were born that later became legends. In just a few years, the history of watchmaking was enriched with the Duoplan (1925) models, which later became the prototype of the modern Joailleries 101, the Atmos table clock (1928) and the world-famous Reverso (1931), which the company successfully produces to this day. These watches not only left a bright mark in the history of the Swiss watch house, but also successfully passed the test of time, earning the status of an example of watch classics.
1931 is marked by the appearance of the legendary Reverso watch. During a business trip to India, César de Trey, a Swiss businessman, distributor of Jaeger-LeCoultre, met a group of old friends, British officers. Being great fans of polo, they threw de Trey a frank challenge, asking him whether Swiss watchmakers could create a watch capable of withstanding all the vicissitudes of their favorite sport.
Jaeger-LeCoultre – La Grande Maison Today
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture brings together 40 watchmaking specialties and 20 advanced production technologies under one roof. More than 1,300 employees form a single, close-knit team that works tirelessly to develop and create new, more advanced watches and mechanisms, turning the most daring ideas into reality.
Since July 1, 2012, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been headed by Daniel Riedo. After working for Rolex for more than 12 years, Riedo joined the Jaeger-LeCoultre team in January 2011, becoming one of the main inspirers of the masters of the “Big House”. In 2018, it became known that Mr. Riedo was replaced as CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre by Catherine Alix-Renier.
