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Introduction
tHE MaNuFacturE
audEMarS pIGuEt
The vallée de Joux:
cradle of The waTchmaker’s arT
in the heart of the swiss Jura, around 50 kilometres
north of geneva, nestles a landscape which has
retained its natural charm to this day: the vallée
de Joux. Around the mid-18th century, the harsh
climate of this mountainous region and soil depletion
drove the farming community settled there to seek
other sources of income. with their high degree
of manual dexterity, inexhaustible creativity and
enormous determination, the inhabitants of the
valley, known as combiers, were naturally drawn
to watchmaking.
due to their high quality, the movements they
produced acquired great popularity with the geneva
firms which used them to create complete watches.
from 1740 onwards, watchmaking developed into
the principal industry of the vallée de Joux. This
region was thus transformed, as an 1881 chronicle
put it, “into a land of milk and honey, in which
poverty has rapidly disappeared”.
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