After wrapping up my annual visit to the SIHH watch salon in January, I had the rare opportunity, on the last day of my trip, to ditch the bustle of the Geneva Palexpo for the afternoon and journey to the beautiful Vallée de Joux for a tour of the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture in Le Sentier. Scroll down for my photos from the tour and get an inside look at how one of the watch world’s most prestigious maisons makes its timepieces.
The Vallée’s snow-covered mountains reflected in the windows of the main entrance
The new, recently completed reception area – called the Maison d’Antoine after brand founder Antoine LeCoultre
Antoine LeCoultre’s original workshop, the foundation of today’s modern watchmaking complex
Machines making flat movement components – the first step in the watchmaking process
Mainspring barrels with freshly cut teeth
Large jars of rejected movement parts testify to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s exacting standards.
Demonstrating the stages of creating a Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrolab balance
A teaching model of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s anchor escapement
Attaching pallet stones to anchor escapements
Applying perlage to a brass mainplate
Applying anglage to a movement bridge
A finished, decorated bridge
Finished mainplates ready for movement assembly
An antique decorating machine from 1890
A lineup of finished movements demonstrates Jaeger-LeCoultre’s mastery of various haute horlogerie decorative finishes
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Atmos clocks on display in the Atmos Atelier
Miniaturized dial painting in the Metiers d’Art workshop projected onto a tabletop
44-year JLC veteran and master watchmaker Christian Laurent shows us some of the brand’s most complicated timepieces
Sunset over the Vallée de Joux as our tour concludes