The inauguration of the Heritage Gallery is the ideal pretext for redefining Jaeger-LeCoultre’s DNA… What is it? The fundamentals of Jaeger-LeCoultre are based on four pillars, the first being the Manufacture. This is how the brand was created and how it has developed. This is what Antoine LeCoultre its founder wanted it to be. The first workshop dates back to 1833 and had four employees. In 1866, while almost all watchmakers worked at home, jealously keeping the secret of their know-how, he had a big building built to house production tools and bring watchmakers, calibristes, cadraturiers (a worker that assembles pieces that make the hands of a dial move) together under the same roof… Ahead of his time, he imposed his visionary concept of integrating know-how. This explains why we centralise so many professions within the manufacture today, which is totally self-sufficient as far as designing movements and mastering production know-how are concerned. We are a completely integrated manufacture.

The second pillar lies in our geographical roots in the Joux Valley. The manufacture was the first to develop mechanised procedures for manufacturing complicated watches. And from 1860 to 1900 we created more than 350 different calibres, half of which included complications such as minute repetitions, tourbillons… The third pillar is its heritage, forged by 174 years of activity and the production of more than 1000 movements. In the end Jaeger-LeCoultre doesn’t boil down to a simple manufacture brand; its stylistic signature, highly identifiable, gave birth to such icons as Reverso or the Atmos. The Jaeger-LeCoultre brand is expressed through an exceptionally rich heritage combined with an unusual production tool. This is what has allowed us to be the most innovative brand today. These are our everyday values.

Do you think that resources for the future are taken from your roots? Yes, but it’s not just that. As far as Jaeger-LeCoultre is concerned, the brand draws its resources from its past as well as from its young, creative teams. The team is already very open to the world thanks to its population pyramid that creates an atmosphere where exchanges are always encouraged and where a genuine group cohesion reigns. By joining the manufacture colleagues are part of a second family, a strongly linked group in which strong values exist. The brand evolves and projects itself into the future while protecting its identity; it remains loyal to itself: it is continually creating and trying something new.

The increase in watch making proposals over the past four years has been impressive. How many people work in development? In the past four years we have been genuinely keen to reveal the brand with its know-how on so many levels and one full of abilities where each profession interacts with one another. This is what profession factoring is all about! There are 50 people in the manufacture working in research and development, and if I add the quality people who assist the process, we’re talking about a hundred or so people responsible for designing, realising and producing new models.

Jaeger-LeCoultre is an essential economic player in the Joux Valley, how many employees work in the manufacture today? Jaeger-LeCoultre is not only an essential economic player in the Joux Valley but in the Swiss watch making industry in general, which employs 40,000 people. With 1000 employees it’s one of the two or three biggest manufactures that, thanks to the diversity and multiplicity of its professions brought together on the same site, is one of its kind. Today it’s the most accomplished expression of the manufacture concept.

Why did you prefer the term heritage Gallery as opposed to museum? The term museum refers to the notion of an accomplished past and we’re in full flow. We have designed this space as a link between the past and the future to explain how the brand has blossomed and the factors that make it stand out from the rest. If people are interested in the brand today and are approaching it in a horizontal way with all of its professions, teams and know-how…this allows a heritage gallery to take an interest in issues of a more transcendental nature: how were these professions, these icon pieces, these beautiful movements born? What is their lineage? What ancestors may they have?

Is this place open to the general public? On registration only, for obvious security reasons.

Besides the brand’s collection of old and current timepieces and the some 200 patents, can you talk to us about the monumental movement showcase? The first objective when you build a heritage gallery is to make the place attractive for all those who work in the manufacture as well as the public. Among the brands identifying origins obviously the mastery of the movement through its 174 year history springs to mind. This is what distinguishes Jaeger-LeCoultre from other watch making players. Out of the thousand movements designed and realised by the manufacture we still have 700. Displaying the most beautiful in a showcase that brings together a unique collection of 300 house calibres is therefore justifiable.

A movement has never been displayed in this way, like a monumental contemporary work of art… The movement’s beauty is the very essence of Jaeger-LeCoultre so it had to be expressed in a way that showed its worth. This transparent wall 5.4 metres wide and more than 4.7 metres high, spread out over two floors, contains the most extraordinary collection of watch making movements ever exhibited. Between the past and the future we noticed that these calibres are aesthetically powerful enough to make them attractive when presented outside the case. And this was the challenge to take up. At Jaeger-LeCoultre we like to believe that the most technically accomplished watch isn’t opposed to beauty, far from it. The Duometre is a wonderful expression of this. With a movement comprised of 400 pieces it is certainly the most complicated chronograph on the market thanks to the number of components used for this sole function. Yet its expression is the purest possible. That is part of the brand’s philosophy, to know how many components a movement is comprised of. ■

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